Method and device for operation of user equipment and base station in wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses methods for operating a user equipment and a base station in a wireless communication system and devices for supporting the same. More specifically, the present invention provides various embodiments of methods by which a user equipment transmits an uplink signal to a base station and receives feedback information on the uplink signal in order to transmit and receive signals to and from the base station.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/065,718, filed on Sep. 20, 2018, now allowed, which is a NationalStage application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No.PCT/KR2018/003095, filed on Mar. 16, 2018, which claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 62/556,492, filed on Sep. 10, 2017,U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/536,993, filed on Jul. 26, 2017,U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/525,758, filed on Jun. 28, 2017,U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/492,910, filed on May 1, 2017, U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/480,547, filed on Apr. 3, 2017, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/472,557, filed on Mar. 16, 2017. Thedisclosures of the prior applications are incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, andmore particularly, to methods for operating a user equipment and a basestation in a wireless communication system and devices for supportingthe same.

More specifically, the present invention provides various embodiments ofmethods by which a user equipment transmits an uplink signal to a basestation and receives feedback information on the uplink signal in orderto transmit and receive signals to and from the base station.

BACKGROUND ART

Wireless access systems have been widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication services such as voice or data. In general, awireless access system is a multiple access system that supportscommunication of multiple users by sharing available system resources (abandwidth, transmission power, etc.) among them. For example, multipleaccess systems include a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, aFrequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) system, a Time DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA) system, an Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA) system, and a Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess (SC-FDMA) system.

As a number of communication devices have required higher communicationcapacity, the necessity of the mobile broadband communication muchimproved than the existing radio access technology (RAT) has increased.In addition, massive machine type communications (MTC) capable ofproviding various services at anytime and anywhere by connecting anumber of devices or things to each other has been considered in thenext generation communication system. Moreover, a communication systemdesign capable of supporting services/UEs sensitive to reliability andlatency has been discussed.

As described above, the introduction of the next generation RATconsidering the enhanced mobile broadband communication, massive MTC,Ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), and the like hasbeen discussed.

SUMMARY

An object of the present invention is to provide methods for operating auser equipment and a base station in a wireless communication system anddevices for supporting the same.

Another object of the present invention is to provide methods foroperating a user equipment and a base station when the base stationconfigures grant-free uplink transmission for the user equipment.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the objectsthat could be achieved with the present disclosure are not limited towhat has been particularly described hereinabove and the above and otherobjects that the present disclosure could achieve will be more clearlyunderstood from the following detailed description.

The present invention provides operating methods for a user equipmentand a base station and devices therefor.

In an aspect of the present invention, provided herein is a method foroperating a User Equipment (UE) with respect to a Base Station (BS) in awireless communication system. The method may include, when grant-freeuplink transmission is configured by the BS, repeatedly transmitting anuplink signal one or more times on resources configured by the BS withina predetermined time. In this case, the uplink signal repeatedlytransmitted one or more times within the predetermined time maycorrespond to the same Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processidentity (ID).

In another aspect of the present invention, provided herein is a UserEquipment (UE) for transmitting and receiving signals to and from a BaseStation (BS) in a wireless communication system. The UE may include: atransmitter; a receiver; and a processor connected to the transmitterand the receiver. The processor may be configured to repeatedly transmitan uplink signal one or more times on resources configured by the BSwithin a predetermined time when grant-free uplink transmission isconfigured by the BS. In addition, the uplink signal repeatedlytransmitted one or more times within the predetermined time maycorrespond to the same Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processidentity (ID).

In the above configuration, when the number of repetitions is set to K(where K is a natural number equal to or greater than 1) for the UE, theUE may repeat the transmission K times within the predetermined time, orif the predetermined period expires, the UE terminates repeating thetransmission.

In addition, the UE may obtain acknowledgement information for theuplink signal.

In this case, the UE may obtain the acknowledgement information for theuplink signal as follows: if the UE receives acknowledgement informationcorresponding to the HARQ process ID from the BS, the UE obtainsNon-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the uplink signal; and if the UE does notreceive the acknowledgement information corresponding to the HARQprocess ID from the BS, the UE obtains ACKnowledgement (ACK) for the ULsignal.

When the UE obtains the NACK for the uplink signal, the UE may performretransmission of the uplink signal.

Alternatively, the acknowledgement information may be indicated bycombining either or both of: (1) information indicating a specific valueas resource allocation information for the UE; and (2) feedbackinformation using an HARQ process which is not currently used.

In addition, the HARQ process ID may be determined based on a resourceon which initial transmission of the repeated transmission is performed.

Moreover, a redundancy version corresponding to the repeatedlytransmitted uplink signal varies depending on a pattern that isdetermined based on the resources allocated to the UE.

In a still another aspect of the present invention, provided herein is amethod for operating a Base Station (BS) with respect to a UserEquipment (UE) in a wireless communication system. The method mayinclude, when grant-free uplink transmission is configured for the UE,receiving, from the UE, an uplink signal one or more times on resourcesconfigured by the BS within a predetermined period. In this case, theuplink signal received one or more times within the predetermined timemay correspond to the same Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ)process identity (ID).

In a further aspect of the present invention, provided herein is a BaseStation (BS) for transmitting and receiving signals to and from a UserEquipment (UE) in a wireless communication system. The BS may include: atransmitter; a receiver; and a processor connected to the transmitterand the receiver. In this case, the processor may be configured toreceive, from the UE, an uplink signal one or more times on resourcesconfigured by the BS within a predetermined period when grant-freeuplink transmission is configured for the UE. In addition, the uplinksignal received one or more times within the predetermined time maycorrespond to the same Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processidentity (ID).

In the above configuration, when the number of repetitions is set to K(where K is a natural number equal to or greater than 1) for the UE, theBS may receive the uplink signal one or more times but K or less timesdepending on how the UE repeats transmission within the predeterminedtime.

In addition, the BS may either transmit acknowledgement informationcorresponding to the HARQ process ID to the UE or discard thetransmission according to whether the received uplink signal issuccessfully decoded. In this case, the acknowledgement information maycorrespond to Non-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the uplink signal.

Moreover, when the BS transmits the acknowledgement information, the BSmay receive a signal retransmitted for the uplink signal from the UE.

Further, the BS may transmit acknowledgement information correspondingto the HARQ process ID to the UE according to whether the receiveduplink signal is successfully decoded. In this case, the acknowledgementinformation may indicated by combining either or both of: (1)information indicating a specific value as resource allocationinformation for the UE; and (2) feedback information using an HARQprocess which is not currently used.

Additionally, the HARQ process ID may be determined based on a resourceon which the UE performs initial transmission of repeated transmission.

In this case, the resource on which the initial transmission isperformed may be determined based on a specific resource index in asection including reception of the initial transmission and the repeatedtransmission.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present disclosure areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the disclosure as claimed.

As is apparent from the above description, the embodiments of thepresent disclosure have the following effects.

According to the present invention, a UE and a BS can recognize an HARQprocess ID for grant-free signal transmission.

In addition, it is possible to prevent a mismatch from occurring betweena UE and a BS when they interpret feedback on grant-free signaltransmission.

Moreover, according to the configurations proposed in the presentinvention, when a UE performs transmission for the same Transmission (orTransport) Block (TB) one or more times, efficient HARQ combining can beachieved by using the proposed methods, whereby reducing the signalingoverhead caused by transmission feedback. In particular, according tothe configurations proposed in the present invention, when a UE performsgrant-free uplink transmission by using contention-based uplinkresources, the collision probability between UEs can be reduced.

The effects that can be achieved through the embodiments of the presentinvention are not limited to what has been particularly describedhereinabove and other effects which are not described herein can bederived by those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription. That is, it should be noted that the effects which are notintended by the present invention can be derived by those skilled in theart from the embodiments of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, provide embodiments of the presentinvention together with detail explanation. Yet, a technicalcharacteristic of the present invention is not limited to a specificdrawing. Characteristics disclosed in each of the drawings are combinedwith each other to configure a new embodiment. Reference numerals ineach drawing correspond to structural elements.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating physical channels and a signaltransmission method using the physical channels;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating exemplary radio framestructures;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary resource grid for theduration of a downlink slot;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary structure of an uplinksubframe;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary structure of a downlinksubframe;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a self-contained subframe structureapplicable to the present invention;

FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams illustrating representative connectionmethods for connecting TXRUs to antenna elements;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a hybrid beamformingstructure according to an embodiment of the present invention from theperspective of TXRUs and physical antennas;

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating the beam sweepingoperation for synchronization signals and system information during adownlink (DL) transmission process according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIGS. 11 and 12 schematically illustrate relationships between HARQprocess IDs (or HARQ process numbers) and periodically allocatedresources according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of allocating resources based on thenumber of repetitions according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 14 to 16 schematically illustrate examples of resource allocationwhen three times repeated transmission including initial transmission isconfigured.

FIGS. 17 and 18 schematically illustrate that a UE continuouslytransmits two TBs (TB1 and TB2).

FIGS. 19 and 20 schematically illustrate CS gaps applicable to initialand repeated transmission according to the present invention.

FIG. 21 schematically illustrate operation between a UE and a BSaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates the configurations of a UE and a BS for implementingthe proposed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments of the present disclosure described below arecombinations of elements and features of the present disclosure inspecific forms. The elements or features may be considered selectiveunless otherwise mentioned. Each element or feature may be practicedwithout being combined with other elements or features. Further, anembodiment of the present disclosure may be constructed by combiningparts of the elements and/or features. Operation orders described inembodiments of the present disclosure may be rearranged. Someconstructions or elements of any one embodiment may be included inanother embodiment and may be replaced with corresponding constructionsor features of another embodiment.

In the description of the attached drawings, a detailed description ofknown procedures or steps of the present disclosure will be avoided lestit should obscure the subject matter of the present disclosure. Inaddition, procedures or steps that could be understood to those skilledin the art will not be described either.

Throughout the specification, when a certain portion “includes” or“comprises” a certain component, this indicates that other componentsare not excluded and may be further included unless otherwise noted. Theterms “unit”, “-or/er” and “module” described in the specificationindicate a unit for processing at least one function or operation, whichmay be implemented by hardware, software or a combination thereof. Inaddition, the terms “a or an”, “one”, “the” etc. may include a singularrepresentation and a plural representation in the context of the presentdisclosure (more particularly, in the context of the following claims)unless indicated otherwise in the specification or unless contextclearly indicates otherwise.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a description is mainlymade of a data transmission and reception relationship between a BaseStation (BS) and a User Equipment (UE). A BS refers to a terminal nodeof a network, which directly communicates with a UE. A specificoperation described as being performed by the BS may be performed by anupper node of the BS.

Namely, it is apparent that, in a network comprised of a plurality ofnetwork nodes including a BS, various operations performed forcommunication with a UE may be performed by the BS, or network nodesother than the BS. The term ‘BS’ may be replaced with a fixed station, aNode B, an evolved Node B (eNode B or eNB), gNode B (gNB), an AdvancedBase Station (ABS), an access point, etc.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term terminal may bereplaced with a UE, a Mobile Station (MS), a Subscriber Station (SS), aMobile Subscriber Station (MSS), a mobile terminal, an Advanced MobileStation (AMS), etc.

A transmission end is a fixed and/or mobile node that provides a dataservice or a voice service and a reception end is a fixed and/or mobilenode that receives a data service or a voice service. Therefore, a UEmay serve as a transmission end and a BS may serve as a reception end,on an UpLink (UL). Likewise, the UE may serve as a reception end and theBS may serve as a transmission end, on a DownLink (DL).

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be supported by standardspecifications disclosed for at least one of wireless access systemsincluding an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.xx system, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) system, a3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, 3GPP 5G NR system, and a 3GPP2system. In particular, the embodiments of the present disclosure may besupported by the standard specifications, 3GPP TS 36.211, 3GPP TS36.212, 3GPP TS 36.213, 3GPP TS 36.321, 3GPP TS 36.331, 3GPP TS 38.211,3GPP TS 38.212, 3GPP TS 38.213, 3GPP TS 38.321 and 3GPP TS 38.331. Thatis, the steps or parts, which are not described to clearly reveal thetechnical idea of the present disclosure, in the embodiments of thepresent disclosure may be explained by the above standardspecifications. All terms used in the embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be explained by the standard specifications.

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detaileddescription, which will be given below with reference to theaccompanying drawings, is intended to explain exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure, rather than to show the only embodiments thatcan be implemented according to the disclosure.

The following detailed description includes specific terms in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that the specific terms maybe replaced with other terms without departing the technical spirit andscope of the present disclosure.

For example, the term, TxOP may be used interchangeably withtransmission period or Reserved Resource Period (RRP) in the same sense.Further, a Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) procedure may be performed for thesame purpose as a carrier sensing procedure for determining whether achannel state is idle or busy, CCA (Clear Channel Assessment), CAP(Channel Access Procedure).

Hereinafter, 3GPP LTE/LTE-A systems are explained, which are examples ofwireless access systems.

The embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to variouswireless access systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), SingleCarrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), etc.

CDMA may be implemented as a radio technology such as UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) or CDMA2000. TDMA may be implemented asa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile communications(GSM)/General packet Radio Service (GPRS)/Enhanced Data Rates for GSMEvolution (EDGE). OFDMA may be implemented as a radio technology such asIEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Evolved UTRA(E-UTRA), etc.

UTRA is a part of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).3GPP LTE is a part of Evolved UMTS (E-UMTS) using E-UTRA, adopting OFDMAfor DL and SC-FDMA for UL. LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) is an evolution of 3GPPLTE. While the embodiments of the present disclosure are described inthe context of a 3GPP LTE/LTE-A system in order to clarify the technicalfeatures of the present disclosure, the present disclosure is alsoapplicable to an IEEE 802.16e/m system, etc.

1. 3GPP LTE/LTE-A System

1.1. Physical Channels and Signal Transmission and Reception MethodUsing the Same

In a wireless access system, a UE receives information from an eNB on aDL and transmits information to the eNB on a UL. The informationtransmitted and received between the UE and the eNB includes generaldata information and various types of control information. There aremany physical channels according to the types/usages of informationtransmitted and received between the eNB and the UE.

FIG. 1 illustrates physical channels and a general signal transmissionmethod using the physical channels, which may be used in embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

When a UE is powered on or enters a new cell, the UE performs initialcell search (S11). The initial cell search involves acquisition ofsynchronization to an eNB. Specifically, the UE synchronizes its timingto the eNB and acquires information such as a cell Identifier (ID) byreceiving a Primary Synchronization Channel (P-SCH) and a SecondarySynchronization Channel (S-SCH) from the eNB.

Then the UE may acquire information broadcast in the cell by receiving aPhysical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) from the eNB.

During the initial cell search, the UE may monitor a DL channel state byreceiving a Downlink Reference Signal (DL RS).

After the initial cell search, the UE may acquire more detailed systeminformation by receiving a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) andreceiving a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) based oninformation of the PDCCH (S12).

To complete connection to the eNB, the UE may perform a random accessprocedure with the eNB (S13 to S16). In the random access procedure, theUE may transmit a preamble on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)(S13) and may receive a PDCCH and a PDSCH associated with the PDCCH(S14). In the case of contention-based random access, the UE mayadditionally perform a contention resolution procedure includingtransmission of an additional PRACH (S15) and reception of a PDCCHsignal and a PDSCH signal corresponding to the PDCCH signal (S16).

After the above procedure, the UE may receive a PDCCH and/or a PDSCHfrom the eNB (S17) and transmit a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)and/or a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) to the eNB (S18), in ageneral UL/DL signal transmission procedure.

Control information that the UE transmits to the eNB is genericallycalled Uplink Control Information (UCI). The UCI includes a HybridAutomatic Repeat and reQuest Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement(HARQ-ACK/NACK), a Scheduling Request (SR), a Channel Quality Indicator(CQI), a Precoding Matrix Index (PMI), a Rank Indicator (RI), etc.

In the LTE system, UCI is generally transmitted on a PUCCH periodically.However, if control information and traffic data should be transmittedsimultaneously, the control information and traffic data may betransmitted on a PUSCH. In addition, the UCI may be transmittedaperiodically on the PUSCH, upon receipt of a request/command from anetwork.

1.2. Resource Structure

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate exemplary radio frame structures used inembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates frame structure type 1. Frame structure type 1 isapplicable to both a full Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system and ahalf FDD system.

One radio frame is 10 ms (Tf=307200·Ts) long, including equal-sized 20slots indexed from 0 to 19. Each slot is 0.5 ms (Tslot=15360·Ts) long.One subframe includes two successive slots. An ith subframe includes2ith and (2i+1)th slots. That is, a radio frame includes 10 subframes. Atime required for transmitting one subframe is defined as a TransmissionTime Interval (TTI). Ts is a sampling time given as Ts=1/(15kHz×2048)=3.2552×10−8 (about 33 ns). One slot includes a plurality ofOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols or SC-FDMAsymbols in the time domain by a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) inthe frequency domain.

A slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols in the time domain. SinceOFDMA is adopted for DL in the 3GPP LTE system, one OFDM symbolrepresents one symbol period. An OFDM symbol may be called an SC-FDMAsymbol or symbol period. An RB is a resource allocation unit including aplurality of contiguous subcarriers in one slot.

In a full FDD system, each of 10 subframes may be used simultaneouslyfor DL transmission and UL transmission during a 10-ms duration. The DLtransmission and the UL transmission are distinguished by frequency. Onthe other hand, a UE cannot perform transmission and receptionsimultaneously in a half FDD system.

The above radio frame structure is purely exemplary. Thus, the number ofsubframes in a radio frame, the number of slots in a subframe, and thenumber of OFDM symbols in a slot may be changed.

FIG. 2B illustrates frame structure type 2. Frame structure type 2 isapplied to a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system. One radio frame is 10 ms(Tf=307200·Ts) long, including two half-frames each having a length of 5ms (=153600·Ts) long. Each half-frame includes five subframes each being1 ms (=30720·Ts) long. An ith subframe includes 2ith and (2i+1)th slotseach having a length of 0.5 ms (Tslot=15360·Ts). Ts is a sampling timegiven as Ts=1/(15 kHz×2048)=3.2552×10−8 (about 33 ns).

A type-2 frame includes a special subframe having three fields, DownlinkPilot Time Slot (DwPTS), Guard Period (GP), and Uplink Pilot Time Slot(UpPTS). The DwPTS is used for initial cell search, synchronization, orchannel estimation at a UE, and the UpPTS is used for channel estimationand UL transmission synchronization with a UE at an eNB. The GP is usedto cancel UL interference between a UL and a DL, caused by themulti-path delay of a DL signal.

[Table 1] below lists special subframe configurations (DwPTS/GP/UpPTSlengths).

TABLE 1 Normal cyclic prefix in downlink Extended cyclic prefix indownlink Special UpPTS UpPTS subframe Normal cyclic Extended cyclicNormal cyclic Extended cyclic configuration DwPTS prefix in uplinkprefix in uplink DwPTS prefix in uplink prefix in uplink 0  6592 · T_(s)2192 · T_(s) 2560 · T_(s)  7680 · T_(s) 2192 · T_(s) 2560 · T_(s) 119760 · T_(s) 20480 · T_(s) 2 21952 · T_(s) 23040 · T_(s) 3 24144 ·T_(s) 25600 · T_(s) 4 26366 · T_(s)  7680 · T_(s) 4384 · T_(s) 5120 ·T_(s) 5  6592 · T_(s) 4384 · T_(s) 5120 · T_(s) 20480 · T_(s) 6 19760 ·T_(s) 23040 · T_(s) 7 21952 · T_(s) — — — 8 24144 · T_(s) — — —

In addition, in the LTE Rel-13 system, it is possible to newly configurethe configuration of special subframes (i.e., the lengths ofDwPTS/GP/UpPTS) by considering the number of additional SC-FDMA symbols,X, which is provided by the higher layer parameter named “srs-UpPtsAdd”(if this parameter is not configured, X is set to 0). In the LTE Rel-14system, specific subframe configuration #10 is newly added. The UE isnot expected to be configured with 2 additional UpPTS SC-FDMA symbolsfor special subframe configurations {3, 4, 7, 8} for normal cyclicprefix in downlink and special subframe configurations {2, 3, 5, 6} forextended cyclic prefix in downlink and 4 additional UpPTS SC-FDMAsymbols for special subframe configurations {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8} fornormal cyclic prefix in downlink and special subframe configurations {1,2, 3, 5, 6} for extended cyclic prefix in downlink.)

TABLE 2 Normal cyclic prefix in downlink Extended cyclic prefix indownlink Special UpPTS UpPTS subframe Normal cyclic Extended cyclicNormal cyclic Extended cyclic configuration DwPTS prefix in uplinkprefix in uplink DwPTS prefix in uplink prefix in uplink  0  6592 ·T_(s) (1 + X) · 2192 · T_(s) (1 + X) · 2560 · T_(s)  7680 · T_(s) (1 +X) · 2192 · T_(s) (1 + X) · 2560 · T_(s)  1 19760 · T_(s) 20480 · T_(s) 2 21952 · T_(s) 23040 · T_(s)  3 24144 · T_(s) 25600 · T_(s)  4 26366 ·T_(s)  7680 · T_(s) (2 + X) · 2192 · T_(s) (2 + X) · 2560 · T_(s)  5 6592 · T_(s) (2 + X) · 2192 · T_(s) (2 + X) · 2560 · T_(s) 20480 ·T_(s)  6 19760 · T_(s) 23040 · T_(s)  7 21952 · T_(s) 12800 · T_(s)  824144 · T_(s) — — —  9 13168 · T_(s) — — — 10 13168 · T_(s) 13152 ·T_(s) 12800 · T_(s) — — —

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary structure of a DL resource grid for theduration of one DL slot, which may be used in embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3 , a DL slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols inthe time domain. One DL slot includes 7 OFDM symbols in the time domainand an RB includes 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain, to which thepresent disclosure is not limited.

Each element of the resource grid is referred to as a Resource Element(RE). An RB includes 12×7 REs. The number of RBs in a DL slot, NDLdepends on a DL transmission bandwidth.

FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a UL subframe which may be used inembodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 4 , a UL subframe may be divided into a control regionand a data region in the frequency domain. A PUCCH carrying UCI isallocated to the control region and a PUSCH carrying user data isallocated to the data region. To maintain a single carrier property, aUE does not transmit a PUCCH and a PUSCH simultaneously. A pair of RBsin a subframe are allocated to a PUCCH for a UE. The RBs of the RB pairoccupy different subcarriers in two slots. Thus it is said that the RBpair frequency-hops over a slot boundary.

FIG. 5 illustrates a structure of a DL subframe that may be used inembodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5 , up to three OFDM symbols of a DL subframe,starting from OFDM symbol 0 are used as a control region to whichcontrol channels are allocated and the other OFDM symbols of the DLsubframe are used as a data region to which a PDSCH is allocated. DLcontrol channels defined for the 3GPP LTE system include a PhysicalControl Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), a PDCCH, and a PhysicalHybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH).

The PCFICH is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol of a subframe,carrying information about the number of OFDM symbols used fortransmission of control channels (i.e. the size of the control region)in the subframe. The PHICH is a response channel to a UL transmission,delivering an HARQ ACK/NACK signal. Control information carried on thePDCCH is called Downlink Control Information (DCI). The DCI transportsUL resource assignment information, DL resource assignment information,or UL Transmission (Tx) power control commands for a UE group.

2. New Radio Access Technology System

As a number of communication devices have required higher communicationcapacity, the necessity of the mobile broadband communication muchimproved than the existing radio access technology (RAT) has increased.In addition, massive machine type communications (MTC) capable ofproviding various services at anytime and anywhere by connecting anumber of devices or things to each other has also been required.Moreover, a communication system design capable of supportingservices/UEs sensitive to reliability and latency has been proposed.

As the new RAT considering the enhanced mobile broadband communication,massive MTC, Ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), andthe like, a new RAT system has been proposed. In the present invention,the corresponding technology is referred to as the new RAT or new radio(NR) for convenience of description.

2.1. Numerologies

The NR system to which the present invention is applicable supportsvarious OFDM numerologies shown in the following table. In this case,the value of μ and cyclic prefix information per carrier bandwidth partcan be signaled in DL and UL, respectively. For example, the value of μand cyclic prefix information per downlink carrier bandwidth part may besignaled though DL-BWP-mu and DL-MWP-cp corresponding to higher layersignaling. As another example, the value of μ and cyclic prefixinformation per uplink carrier bandwidth part may be signaled thoughUL-BWP-mu and UL-MWP-cp corresponding to higher layer signaling.

TABLE 3 μ Δf = 2^(μ) · 15 [kHz] Cyclic prefix 0 15 Normal 1 30 Normal 260 Normal, Extended 3 120 Normal 4 240 Normal

2.2 Frame Structure

DL and UL transmission are configured with frames with a length of 10ms. Each frame may be composed of ten subframes, each having a length of1 ms. In this case, the number of consecutive OFDM symbols in eachsubframe is N_(symb) ^(subframe,μ)=N_(symb) ^(slot)N_(slot)^(subframe,μ).

In addition, each subframe may be composed of two half-frames with thesame size. In this case, the two half-frames are composed of subframes 0to 4 and subframes 5 to 9, respectively.

Regarding the subcarrier spacing μ, slots may be numbered within onesubframe in ascending order like n_(s) ^(μ)∈{0, . . . , N_(slot)^(subframe, μ)−1} and may also be numbered within a frame in ascendingorder like n_(s,f) ^(μ)∈{0, . . . , N_(slot) ^(frame,μ)−1}. In thiscase, the number of consecutive OFDM symbols in one slot (N_(symb)^(slot)) may be determined as shown in the following table according tothe cyclic prefix. The start slot (n_(s) ^(μ)) of one subframe isaligned with the start OFDM symbol (n_(s) ^(μ)N_(symb) ^(slot)) of thesame subframe in the time dimension. Table 4 shows the number of OFDMsymbols in each slot/frame/subframe in the case of the normal cyclicprefix, and Table 5 shows the number of OFDM symbols in eachslot/frame/subframe in the case of the extended cyclic prefix.

TABLE 4 μ N_(symb) ^(slot) N_(slot) ^(frame, μ) N_(slot) ^(subframe, μ)0 14 10 1 1 14 20 2 2 14 40 4 3 14 80 8 4 14 160 16 5 14 320 32

TABLE 5 μ N_(symb) ^(slot) N_(slot) ^(frame, μ) N_(slot) ^(subframe, μ)2 12 40 4

In the NR system to which the present invention can be applied, aself-contained slot structure can be applied based on theabove-described slot structure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a self-contained slot structureapplicable to the present invention.

In FIG. 6 , the hatched area (e.g., symbol index=0) indicates a downlinkcontrol region, and the black area (e.g., symbol index=13) indicates anuplink control region. The remaining area (e.g., symbol index=1 to 13)can be used for DL or UL data transmission.

Based on this structure, the eNB and UE can sequentially perform DLtransmission and UL transmission in one slot. That is, the eNB and UEcan transmit and receive not only DL data but also UL ACK/NACK inresponse to the DL data in one slot. Consequently, due to such astructure, it is possible to reduce a time required until dataretransmission in case a data transmission error occurs, therebyminimizing the latency of the final data transmission.

In this self-contained slot structure, a predetermined length of a timegap is required for the process of allowing the eNB and UE to switchfrom transmission mode to reception mode and vice versa. To this end, inthe self-contained slot structure, some OFDM symbols at the time ofswitching from DL to UL are set as a guard period (GP).

Although it is described that the self-contained slot structure includesboth the DL and UL control regions, these control regions can beselectively included in the self-contained slot structure. In otherwords, the self-contained slot structure according to the presentinvention may include either the DL control region or the UL controlregion as well as both the DL and UL control regions as shown in FIG. 6.

In addition, for example, the slot may have various slot formats. Inthis case, OFDM symbols in each slot can be divided into downlinksymbols (denoted by ‘D’), flexible symbols (denoted by ‘X’), and uplinksymbols (denoted by ‘U’).

Thus, the UE can assume that DL transmission occurs only in symbolsdenoted by ‘D’ and ‘X’ in the DL slot. Similarly, the UE can assume thatUL transmission occurs only in symbols denoted by ‘U’ and ‘X’ in the ULslot.

2.3. Analog Beamforming

In a millimeter wave (mmW) system, since a wavelength is short, aplurality of antenna elements can be installed in the same area. Thatis, considering that the wavelength at 30 GHz band is 1 cm, a total of100 antenna elements can be installed in a 5*5 cm panel at intervals of0.5 lambda (wavelength) in the case of a 2-dimensional array. Therefore,in the mmW system, it is possible to improve the coverage or throughputby increasing the beamforming (BF) gain using multiple antenna elements.

In this case, each antenna element can include a transceiver unit (TXRU)to enable adjustment of transmit power and phase per antenna element. Bydoing so, each antenna element can perform independent beamforming perfrequency resource.

However, installing TXRUs in all of the about 100 antenna elements isless feasible in terms of cost. Therefore, a method of mapping aplurality of antenna elements to one TXRU and adjusting the direction ofa beam using an analog phase shifter has been considered. However, thismethod is disadvantageous in that frequency selective beamforming isimpossible because only one beam direction is generated over the fullband.

To solve this problem, as an intermediate form of digital BF and analogBF, hybrid BF with B TXRUs that are fewer than Q antenna elements can beconsidered. In the case of the hybrid BF, the number of beam directionsthat can be transmitted at the same time is limited to B or less, whichdepends on how B TXRUs and Q antenna elements are connected.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams illustrating representative methods forconnecting TXRUs to antenna elements. Here, the TXRU virtualizationmodel represents the relationship between TXRU output signals andantenna element output signals.

FIG. 7 shows a method for connecting TXRUs to sub-arrays. In FIG. 7 ,one antenna element is connected to one TXRU.

Meanwhile, FIG. 8 shows a method for connecting all TXRUs to all antennaelements. In FIG. 8 , all antenna element are connected to all TXRUs. Inthis case, separate addition units are required to connect all antennaelements to all TXRUs as shown in FIG. 8 .

In FIGS. 7 and 8 , W indicates a phase vector weighted by an analogphase shifter. That is, W is a major parameter determining the directionof the analog beamforming. In this case, the mapping relationshipbetween CSI-RS antenna ports and TXRUs may be 1:1 or 1-to-many.

The configuration shown in FIG. 7 has a disadvantage in that it isdifficult to achieve beamforming focusing but has an advantage in thatall antennas can be configured at low cost.

On the contrary, the configuration shown in FIG. 8 is advantageous inthat beamforming focusing can be easily achieved. However, since allantenna elements are connected to the TXRU, it has a disadvantage ofhigh cost.

When a plurality of antennas are used in the NR system to which thepresent invention is applicable, the hybrid beamforming method obtainedby combining the digital beamforming and analog beamforming can beapplied. In this case, the analog (or radio frequency (RF)) beamformingmeans the operation where precoding (or combining) is performed at theRF end. In the case of the hybrid beamforming, precoding (or combining)is performed at the baseband end and RF end, respectively. Thus, thehybrid beamforming is advantageous in that it guarantees the performancesimilar to the digital beamforming while reducing the number of RFchains and D/A (digital-to-analog) (or A/D (analog-to-digital) zconverters.

For convenience of description, the hybrid beamforming structure can berepresented by N transceiver units (TXRUs) and M physical antennas. Inthis case, the digital beamforming for L data layers to be transmittedby the transmitting end may be represented by the N*L (N by L) matrix.Thereafter, N converted digital signals are converted into analogsignals by the TXRUs, and then the analog beamforming, which may berepresented by the M*N (M by N) matrix, is applied to the convertedsignals.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a hybrid beamformingstructure according to an embodiment of the present invention from theperspective of TXRUs and physical antennas. In FIG. 9 , it is assumedthat the number of digital beams is L and the number of analog beams isN.

Additionally, a method for providing efficient beamforming to UEslocated in a specific area by designing an eNB capable of changinganalog beamforming on a symbol basis has been considered in the NRsystem to which the present invention is applicable. Further, a methodof introducing a plurality of antenna panels where independent hybridbeamforming can be applied by defining N TXRUs and M RF antennas as oneantenna panel has also been considered in the NR system to which thepresent invention is applicable.

When the eNB uses a plurality of analog beams as described above, eachUE has a different analog beam suitable for signal reception. Thus, thebeam sweeping operation where the eNB applies a different analog beamper symbol in a specific subframe (SF) (at least with respect tosynchronization signals, system information, paging, etc.) and thenperform signal transmission in order to allow all UEs to have receptionopportunities has been considered in the NR system to which the presentinvention is applicable.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating the beam sweepingoperation for synchronization signals and system information during adownlink (DL) transmission process according to an embodiment of thepresent invention

In FIG. 10 , a physical resource (or channel) for transmitting systeminformation of the NR system to which the present invention isapplicable in a broadcasting manner is referred to as a physicalbroadcast channel (xPBCH). In this case, analog beams belonging todifferent antenna panels can be simultaneously transmitted in onesymbol.

In addition, the introduction of a beam reference signal (BRS)corresponding to the reference signal (RS) to which a single analog beam(corresponding to a specific antenna panel) is applied has beendiscussed as the configuration for measuring a channel per analog beamin the NR system to which the present invention is applicable. The BRScan be defined for a plurality of antenna ports, and each BRS antennaport may correspond to a single analog beam. In this case, unlike theBRS, all analog beams in the analog beam group can be applied to thesynchronization signal or xPBCH to assist a random UE to correctlyreceive the synchronization signal or xPBCH.

3. Proposed Embodiments

Hereinafter, the configurations proposed in the present invention willbe described in detail based on the above-discussed technical features.

In a wireless communication system to which the present invention isapplicable, a UE can perform grant-free UL signal transmission withoutscheduling from a BS. Hereinafter, for clarity of description, UL signaltransmission that can be performed without separate scheduling from a BSis referred to as grant-free UL signal transmission.

In the NR system to which the present invention is applicable, thefollowing two types of scheduling methods for grant-free UL signaltransmission can be used.

-   -   Type 1 (configured grant Type 1): UL grant is provided by higher        layer signaling (e.g., RRC) and stored as configured UL grant.    -   Type 2 (configured grant Type 2): UL grant is provided by L1        signaling (e.g., PDCCH) and stored or cleared as configured UL        grant based on L1 signaling indicating configured grant        activation or deactivation.

In this case, for efficient use of resources, the UE can use a resourcepool that is shared by multiple UEs for the UL transmission in acontention-based manner.

However, it is difficult for the BS to accurately recognize the identity(e.g., identifier) of a UE who attempts to transmit a signal by usingcontention-based resources, and thus it is also difficult for the BS totransmit UE-specific feedback in response to the signal. To solve thisproblem, the BS can use a resource-specific A/N channel instead of aUE-specific A/N channel.

In addition, in the wireless communication system to which the presentinvention is applicable, a UE can repeatedly perform grant-free ULsignal transmission to improve the transmission success rate of thegrant-free UL signal transmission.

However, when the number of times that a UE performs signal transmissionon contention-based UL resources rather than dedicated UL resourceswhich are supported in the conventional wireless communication systemsincreases, the collision probability between UEs may increase. Inparticular, if the UE use the same resources whenever performing thesignal transmission, it may cause a series of collisions.

Moreover, if a feedback transmission method defined in the conventionalwireless communication systems is applied to the above-described signaltransmission and reception, it may significantly increase the signalingoverhead. Thus, the present invention proposes channels for carryingfeedback on grant-free signals, feedback transmission methods, and UEoperations upon reception of feedback by considering the uniquecharacteristics of the grant-free signal transmission.

Thus, the present invention describes in detail a method by which a BStransmits feedback by considering multiple feedback channels and amethod by which a UE operates upon reception of the feedback when the UEperforms UL transmission without dynamic scheduling from the BS and alsoperforms transmission for the same Transmission Block (TB) one or moretimes.

In the following description, radio resources or resources may mean notonly time/frequency resources but also elements distinguished from eachother by multiple access schemes such as spreading codes, scramblingcodes, interleaving patterns, power allocation, etc.

In addition, feedback, ACK, or NACK may include not only decodingresults of received data but also response to a specific signal, whichis transmitted from a BS to indicate successful UL transmission.

Moreover, although the present invention will be described based on ULchannels/signals and grant-free/grant-based radio resources, theinvention is not limited thereto. That is, the invention can beextensively applied to DL channels/signals and other radio resources.

3.1. Synchronous Timing Based A/N Channel Transmission

In the wireless communication system to which the present invention isapplicable, if a UE performs UL signal transmission on allocated ULresources, a BS needs to provide feedback thereof to the UE. Thus, thefollowing two methods can be considered as a method by which a BSprovides feedback (e.g., A/N) indicating whether UL transmission issuccessful to a UE who transmitted a grant-free signal.

(1) Feedback Transmission Method Based on Type 1 Resources

The feedback transmission method based on type 1 resources (or resourcetype 1) may be a feedback transmission method using UE-specificresources. For example, the BS may include A/N information in a messagesuch as UL grant and transmit it to a corresponding UE. Alternatively,the BS may allocate UE-specific dedicated resources and use theresources to transmit A/N to each UE.

(2) Feedback Transmission Method Based on Type 2 Resources

The feedback transmission method based on type 2 resources (or resourcetype 2) may be a feedback transmission method using resource-specificresources. In this case, the resource-specific resources may mean DCIincluding the A/N bitmap for a grant-free resource pool ortime/frequency resources related to transmission resources like thePHICH of the legacy LTE system. Alternatively, the type 2 resources maymean resources differently determined according to the resources used bya UE for UL signal transmission.

In the case of feedback using type 1 resources, the BS can indicatewhich signal transmission the feedback is for by using HARQ processnumbers according the ARQ scheme of the UE.

On the other hand, in the case of feedback using type 2 resources, thefeedback should represent (or indicate) the time/frequency resourcesused for the corresponding (UL) signal transmission (performed by theUE).

To this end, a method of including resource information except timeinformation in feedback based on type 2 resources and indicating thetime information through the transmission time of the feedback can beapplied. In other words, the feedback based on type 2 resources canindicate the resources for a corresponding (UE's UL) signal through thetransmission time and separate resource information.

More specifically, assuming that the feedback transmitted at time #Nincludes information representing (or indicating) resource #R, thefeedback may be considered as the feedback transmitted in response tothe UL signal transmission on resource #R at time #N−K, which is apartfrom the time at which the feedback is transmitted by a fixed timeinterval of K. In this case, the time interval K may be determined bysignaling from the BS in a UE-specific/resource-specific/group-specificmanner. Alternatively, the time interval K may be determined dependingon UE capability.

If 1:1 mapping of signal transmission resources and A/N resources isimplicitly determined (for example, one index within a resource pool isused for one A/N index), a separate offset may be configured for an A/Nindex in order to avoid a collision between UEs with different K values.This configuration may be changed via higher layer signaling, DCI, orMedium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE), etc.

Assuming general synchronous HARQ-ACK transmission, A/N resources mayhave an implicit mapping relationship with time/frequency resources forgrant-free UL transmission. This will be described in detail withreference to the following examples.

1) A PHICH or an A/N channel has N A/N resources, where N corresponds tothe number of resources include in a resource pool in one slot. Inaddition, these resources may be distinguished from each other byfrequency/code.

As a more particular example, timing M for A/N transmission can beimplicitly determined. In this case, a UE may assume a different timingvalue according to its processing capability. Specifically, if the UE'sprocessing capability is equal to or lower than the timing M (in otherwords, the minimum time required for the UE to switch its operation fromUL signal transmission to DL signal reception (e.g., UL-to-DL switchingtime) is equal to or less than the timing M, the UE can assume the A/Ntransmission timing value to be M. On the contrary, if the UE'sprocessing capability is higher than the timing M, the UE can assume theA/N transmission timing value to be 2*M. In this case, it is assumedthat the same resource pool and A/N resources are not supported for a UEwith processing capability higher than 2*M.

Here, the value of M can be configured per A/N resource or per A/Nchannel.

For a UE with the timing of 2*M, at least two A/N resources may beconfigured per index (i.e., one is for timing M UE and the other is fortiming 2*M UE for the same resource). If multiple code blocks aretransmitted per resource, additional A/N resources may be furtherconfigured per index.

As another particular example, timing K for A/N feedback transmissioncan be configured per UE. In this case, each UE may have a different Kvalue, or individual UEs may be allocated A/N resources having differentK values per resource (e.g., frequency/code resource) to avoidcollisions therebetween. Further, different offsets may be configuredaccording to the value of K.

2) A PHICH or an A/N channel has P ACK-NACK resources, where Pcorresponds to the number of received signals in a resource pool in oneslot (regardless of whether reception is correctly performed or not).

In this example, it is possible to configure only resources fortransmitting A/N for the used resources in the resource pool.Alternatively, it is possible to configure as many A/N resource as theresources used for feedback (e.g., NACK or ACK) transmission. Accordingto this method, the identity information for K may be transmittedtogether with the A/N feedback or configured separately.

When mapping is performed according to example 2), the same or differentA/N feedback timing may be configured for UEs as described in method 1).

In addition, when contention-based UL resources are used for grant-freeUL signal transmission, if a collision between UEs occurs, each of theUEs should provide feedback thereof. If a UE attempts to perform signaltransmission repeatedly, the UE may need to perform feedbacktransmission frequently.

In this case, if type 2 resources are used for the feedbacktransmission, the signaling overhead may be reduced. Meanwhile, whentype 2 resources are used to transmit ACK, the UE may has thenear-far-problem. Further, if the UE is a low power UE, thecorresponding signal cannot be transmitted to the BS, and thus the UEmay have a NACK-to-ACK error.

Therefore, a method of using different feedback channels according tothe feedback to be transmitted and the resource configuration of a UEshould be considered. Considering such a feedback channel andtransmission repetition by a UE that performs grant-free transmission,the present invention proposes the following A/N transmission methods.

<1> A/N Transmission per Repetition or for Each Reception

A BS can provide feedback on signal transmission to a UE perreception/repetition. In this case, if the UE performs repeatedtransmission, the BS may transmit to the UE multiple ACK or NACK for asingle TB.

<2> A/N Feedback Transmission Only for the End of Repetition

A BS can provide a UE with feedback on the last repeated transmissionperformed by the UE.

Here, as a method for defining the UE's last repeated transmission, thenumber of repetitions can be predetermined by signaling between the BSand UE. In this case, it is assumed that the initial transmission of theUE can be distinguished from the repeated transmission (orretransmission). If the UE's last repeated transmission cannot bespecified, it can be assumed that A/N transmission is performed for theTB transmitted on designated resources. For example, assuming that agrant-free resource (or signal) is transmitted every slot or mini-slot,resources for A/N signal transmission can be assumed to be every K slotor K mini-slot. The network may transmit the A/N signal for the initialor repeated transmission on the corresponding resources. In particular,if the network can distinguish between the same data, the network canperform ACK or NACK transmission after aggregation/accumulation of A/Nfor signals transmitted from the UE.

Alternatively, as another method for defining the last repeatedtransmission, the UE's last repeated transmission can be defined suchthat it is performed on the resources predetermined by signaling betweenthe BS and UE. In this case, the signaling may beUE-specific/group-specific higher layer signaling or DCI/group DCIsignaling.

Further, the UE's last repeated transmission can be defined such that itcorresponds to the time at which the BS transmits the A/N signal. Indetail, if a slot or mini-slot in which the BS transmits the A/N signalis configured in advance (e.g., slot or mini-slot #N), the initialtransmission may be configured such that a resource (or signal)transmitted in slot or mini-slot #N−K corresponds to the last repeatedtransmission.

If the network does not know the starting point of the initialtransmission, the UE may inform how many times the UE repeats thetransmission before the corresponding repeated transmission in the formof data or UCI in each repetition.

As an applicable example, ACK can be transmitted on type 2 resources,and NACK can be transmitted on type 1 resources. Specifically, NACK istransmitted through UL grant, and UL resources indicated by the UL grantcan be used by a UE for retransmission.

Alternatively, instead of ACK, other information can be transmitted ontype 2 resources. In this case, upon receiving ACK, a UE recognizes thatthe ACK is received. However, if ACK is not indicated by resourcesdesignated for an A/N channel, the UE may not apply any assumption tothe corresponding transmission. Thus, the UE may not performretransmission before the network triggers the retransmission bytransmitting UL grant. If there is no trigger for the retransmissionthrough UL grant, the UE may perform buffer flushing after elapse of apredetermined time, continue the repeated transmission for thegrant-free signal transmission, or not perform the retransmission.

As another applicable example, an A/N signal may be transmitted only ontype 2 resources, and retransmission for transmission recovery may beperformed on resources included in a grant-free resource pool.Alternatively, a resource pool for A/N signal transmission may be setequal to that for retransmission.

<3> ACK is Transmitted for All Repeated Transmission but NACK isTransmitted Only for the End of Repetition.

When feedback on UE's repeated transmission is ACK, a BS transmits theACK in response to the repeated transmission. For the UE's last repeatedtransmission, the BS may transmit all types of feedback (e.g., ACK orNACK). Specifically, the BS may transmit feedback except NACK for allrepeated transmission except the last repeated transmission, and in thecase of the last repeated transmission, the BS may transmit all feedback(e.g., ACK or NACK).

For example, if the BS transmits, as feedback information, ACK,COLLISION, NACK, Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), etc., the NACK istransmitted only for the last repeated transmission, and the rest of thefeedback information may be transmitted in response to all repeatedtransmission (or initial transmission).

If one of the ACK, COLLISION, and DTX is transmitted as the feedbackinformation, the UE may perform different operations depending on thetransmitted information. Specifically, if the feedback information isDTX, the UE may adjust a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), power, orthe like. If the feedback information is COLLISION, the UE may performthe subsequent signal transmission by selecting new resources orswitching to different resources. If the feedback information is ACKtransmission, the UE may stop the repeated transmission.

According to the above-described operations, until the end of therepeated transmission, the UE may use grant-free resources to overcomecollisions and low SINR conditions. In addition, after performing therepeated transmission a predetermined number of times, the UE may startretransmission for recovery.

<4> ACK Transmission is Performed for the First ACK

In the case of the first ACK, a BS transmits feedback thereof. If thecorresponding repeated transmission is the last repeated transmission,the BS may transmit ACK or NACK as feedback on the last repeatedtransmission.

Specifically, for all repeated transmission, the BS may transmitfeedback on transmission except NACK and the first ACK, and if thecorresponding repeated transmission is the last repeated transmission,the BS may transmit all feedback except the first ACK. Compared tooperation <3> mentioned in the foregoing description, it has anadvantage in that ACK overhead can be reduced.

For the A/N channel for carrying feedback according to theaforementioned transmission methods, type 1 resources or type 2resources can be used. In this case, even if feedback includes the sameinformation, a UE may perform different operations according to the A/Nchannel that carries the feedback. If the UE does not perform repeatedtransmission, the BS transmit an A/N signal by considering the initialrepetition to be the same as the last repetition.

Such an A/N channel may differ depending on the total number ofrepetitions performed by a UE or each repetition order.

For example, if a UE freely changes the total number of repetitions orif different UEs have different numbers of repetitions on the same(signal transmission) resources, different A/N channel resources may beconfigured depending on the total number of repetitions in order tofacilitate A/N channel mapping.

In this case, an A/N channel may be configured such that it is repeatedaccording to the total number of repetitions performed by a UE.Alternatively, to distinguish between A/N signals for all repeatedtransmission, different A/N channels can be allocated according torepetition transmission order.

In this case, the total number of repetitions may be different from thenumber of A/N channels. The mapping relationship between A/N channelsand repetitions may be predetermined by the BS through higher layersignaling. For example, regarding signal transmission every slot, if anA/N signal is transmitted after every K slots from a corresponding slot,the periodicity K of the A/N signal may be predetermined by the BS.Alternatively, based on separate table information, the repetition orderfor transmitting A/N signals may be predetermined according to the totalnumber of repetitions.

The BS can transmit not only ACK/NACK but also information for assistinga UE to determine the success or failure of UL transmission.Specifically, the BS may inform not only the success of failure ofcorresponding signal transmission but also the cause of the failure ofthe signal transmission through an A/N channel.

For example, if UE's transmission fails, the BS may inform the UE of thefollowing causes: 1) COLLISSION (i.e., the transmission failure is dueto a collision with another UE); 2) DTX (i.e., the transmission fails toarrive at the BS); and 3) the transmission failure is due to decodingfailure at the BS. In this case, the BS may transmit the information tothe UE as follows.

1> When type 1 resources are used as A/N resources, the BS may indicate(or inform) COLLISION and DTX by adding a separate field to thetransmitted information.

2> When both type 1 resources and type 2 resources are used as A/Nresources, the BS may transmit an ACK signal on the type 1 resources inorder to transmit the ACK signal in a UE-specific manner and transmitinformation on DTX/COLLISSION on the type 2 resources.

In this case, a UE may consider On-Off Keying (OOF) for the type 2resources. For example, if a UE is allocated UE-specific resource R1 andresource-specific resource R2, the UE may receive ACK through R1 anddetermine NACK by on-off keying of R2. Thereafter, if necessary, the UEmay determine a failure cause such as DTX/COLLISION by decoding R2.

3> When multiple ACK/NACK is transmitted on a single physical radioresource, the BS may indicate other information by combiningcorresponding ACK/NACK in a specific manner.

For example, when one physical radio resource is shared betweendifferent UEs based on DM-RSs, the BS may transmit an A/N signal perDM-RS. In this case, the BS and UE may promise that a specificcombination among A/N combinations indicates specific information. Forexample, when feedback information for all UEs is ACK, the BS and UE maydefine the corresponding case as a collision case.

4> When ACK/NACK for multiple UEs is transmitted on one physical radioresource and a UE can receive ACK/NACK for another UE, the UE mayestimate the current case from the ACK/NACK for another UE.

For example, if a UE that performs signal transmission receives NACK andrecognizes that there is another UE that receives ACK, the UE maydetermine the current case as the collision case.

Specifically, when ACK/NACK is received in a similar form to DCI format3/3A, the BS may inform a UE of an information index and an informationindex range of UEs sharing the same resources. In this case, ifinformation corresponding to the index of a specific UE is NACK andthere is ACK for at least one different UE in a correspondinginformation index range, the specific UE may determine the current caseas the collision case. On the other hand, if the informationcorresponding to the index of the specific UE is NACK and there is noACK for other UEs in the corresponding information index range, thespecific UE may determine the current case as a DTX case.

While a BS transmits feedback to a UE by using the above-describedfeedback transmission method, a slot may become unavailable at aspecific time, or there may be no or insufficient available A/Nresource.

For example, when an A/N signal is transmitted through DCI, the numberof pieces of A/N feedback that can be transmitted in a scheduling timemay be limited by the amount of resources, the size of information, orthe configuration of a search space. Alternatively, if specifictime/frequency resources are allocated as A/N resources, thecorresponding resource region may be limited by other physical channels(e.g., PBCH).

Thus, when the BS cannot transmit any feedback for several reasons: forexample, because the transmission time of A/N feedback overlaps withthat of data, the UE operations need to be newly defined. Hereinafter,the UE operations when there is no A/N feedback transmission due to theabove reasons will be described in detail.

[1] A/N Transmission can be Opportunistic.

Basically, the UE assumes that it may not receive any A/N signals. Thatis, when the UE does not receive feedback on signal transmission, the UEmakes no assumption. In other words, when the BS transmits no A/N signalin response to the UE's signal transmission, the correspondingconfiguration does not affect the UE operation. According to thisoperation, only when the UE explicitly receives ACK, NACK, or specificinformation, the UE can perform relevant operation.

[2] A/N Transmission is Always Assumed.

Basically, the UE assumes that A/N signals are transmitted for allsignal transmission. In other words, when the BS cannot transmit an A/Nsignal in response to UE's signal transmission (or when the UE fails toany A/N signals), the UE assumes that the previous signal transmissionfails and operate in the same way as when the UE receives NACK.Alternatively, when the UE fails to receive an A/N signal, as thedefault operation, the UE may operate in the same way as when the UEreceives DTX. In this case, the UE may improve the reception performanceby adjusting its power.

[3] In Case no A/N Signal is Received, the UE Considers it as ACK.

Basically, the UE assumes that ACK transmission can be dropped. In otherwords, when the UE does not receive any feedback information from the BS(for example, when no A/N is transmitted), the UE may assume that theprevious signal transmission has been successful and operate in the sameway as when the UE receives ACK.

In the above-described operations, A/N transmission can be performedaccording to one of the aforementioned A/N transmission methods.

Even if a UE receives the same feedback, the UE may perform differentoperations according to how the above-described UE operations and theA/N transmission methods are combined.

In addition, the UE may perform different operations according to thenumber of repetitions. For example, the UE operation when the A/N signalfor the initial or repeated transmission is missed may be different fromthat when the A/N signal for the last repeated transmission is missed.

It is difficult for the UE to determine whether the B S transmits nofeedback or the UE fails to receive feedback transmitted from the BS.Thus, to avoid malfunction caused by erroneous determination for thefeedback, the UE may perform operation [1] among the above-describedoperations. Alternatively, the UE may operate rapidly by making anassumption for the feedback according to operation [2] or [3].

However, an erroneous feedback assumption may cause a collision betweengrant-free resource pools. For example, if an erroneous grant-freeresource pool is configured or the UE misses the grant previouslytransmitted from the BS, the UE may not operate as intended by the BS.As a result, the UE may collide with another UE.

In addition, when A/N missing continuously occurs, the UE may experiencelarge time delay. For example, if the BS fails to detect the identity ofthe UE due to the UE's erroneous resource pool configuration or anasynchronous state, the UE cannot complete its transmission correctlybefore performing a recovery procedure, for example, a procedure forresetting the synchronization with the BS or a procedure forreconfiguring the resource pool. Thus, in this case, relevant UEoperation should be newly defined. Hereinafter, the UE operationapplicable to the above-described situation will be described in detail.

1] When a UE performs grant-free transmission, if A/N missingcontinuously occurs as many times as specified by the predeterminedvalue of K_missing, the UE stops the corresponding repeated transmissionand starts new transmission.

2] When a UE performs grant-free transmission, if A/N missingcontinuously occurs as many times as specified by the predeterminedvalue of K_missing, the UE performs grant-free reconfiguration. In thiscase, grant-free reconfiguration may mean that a UE switches togrant-based transmission according to signaling such as a SchedulingRequest (SR). Alternatively, it may mean that feedback on grant-freefailure is transmitted through an SR/PRACH or similar one and a newgrant-free resource pool is allocated.

3] When a UE performs grant-free transmission, if A/N missingcontinuously occurs as many times as specified by the predeterminedvalue of K_missing, the UE may use previously configured grant-freefallback resources instead of an allocated grant-free resource pool. Inthis case, fallback resources may correspond to a grant-free resourcepool configured by the BS through signaling such as a Master InformationBlock/System Information Block (MIB/SIB) in acell-specific/group-specific manner or UE-dedicated resources allocatedin the grant-free configuration procedure.

The above-described operations can be similarly applied when a UEcontinuously receives signals indicating NACK, COLLISION, or DTX. Sincethe continuous transmission of the above state (e.g., NACK, COLLISION,DTX, etc.) may mean that the collision rate of the resource pool is highor the signal reception quality is extremely low, the UE may need tocorrect the configuration. For example, if DTX is continuously received,the UE should modify beams for signal transmission. In this case, the UEmay repeat transmission by using the multiple beams.

According to the present invention, when NACK, COLLISION, or DTXcontinuously occurs, a UE can operate as follows.

(A) The UE can wait for handling by the BS. Specifically, if the UE doesnot autonomously determine COLLISION or DTX (for example, when anexplicit DTX/COLLISION indicator is received), it can be assumed thatthe BS already knows whether the UE is in the DTX or COLLISION state.Thus, the UE may expect power control or grant-free reconfiguration fromthe BS and waits for handling by the BS. As an example of this case, theUE may stop the previously attempted signal transmission and switch togrant-based signal transmission.

(B) The UE can send a request for handling to the BS. If the UEautonomously determines COLLISION/DTX or uses latency-sensitive traffic,the BS cannot know whether the UE is in the DTX or COLLISION state orinstantaneously handle it. Thus, the UE can directly send the requestfor handling to the BS.

(B-1) When the UE intends to send a request for DTX/COLLISION handlingto the BS, the UE may send the handling request to the BS through higherlayer signaling.

(B-2) The UE can send a request for DTX/COLLISION handling to the BSthrough UCI. For example, if the UE sends an SR through a specific SRresource, the BS may assume that the corresponding UE requestsre-configuration (reconfiguration). Alternatively, the UE may transmit agrant-free report in a similar form to CSI in order to request handlingby the BS. In this case, the grant-free report may be 1-bit informationindicating the presence or absence of DTX or COLLISION.

(B-3) The UE can send a request for handling to the BS through randomaccess. For example, if a grant-free UE requests random access, the BSmay assume COLLISION/DTX or an erroneous configuration and performsgrant-free re-configuration for the UE. Alternatively, if a specificpreamble, which is not used in general random access, is reserved for agrant-free report, the UE may send a request for handling to the BSthrough the random access using the specific preamble.

(C) The UE can autonomously perform DTX/COLLISION handling. For example,if the UE recognizes DTX, the UE may perform the signal transmissionagain by ramping the transmission power. Alternatively, if the UErecognizes COLLISION, the UE may use other resources or backs off fromthe transmission during a predetermined time. In this case, the TX powerramping step or the back-off length may be determined by the BS throughhigher layer signaling or L1 signaling in a UE-specific orresource/group/cell-specific manner, or predetermined values may beused.

As described above, when the UE intends to perform new transmission orretransmission based on grant-free transmission, the UE can perform thetransmission without scheduling from the BS. Accordingly, upon receivingfeedback through a UE-specific message (e.g., UL grant, etc.), the UEcan determine the feedback by combining resource allocation informationincluded in an existing message. Hereinafter, the relevant operationswill be described in detail.

A) The BS can use resource allocation information that is unused oroccasionally used as ACK. For example, in the allocation informationsuch as RA (Resource Allocation) type 2 of the conventional system, anindex that is not present in the RIV to resource allocation mappingTable can be used to transmit feedback information to a UE. In otherwords, the BS can provide the feedback information to the UE by usingthe index in the RIV to resource allocation mapping Table, which is notdefined in the conventional system. Alternatively, the UE may determinea certain value designated by the BS in extra resource allocationinformation as partial feedback information. Thus, the BS may transmitthe resource allocation information including the designated certainvalue to the UE in order to transmit the feedback information to the UE.

B) The BS can use a currently unused HARQ process to indicate partialfeedback information.

C) The BS can provide the UE with partial feedback information bycombining the information described in A) and B) with predeterminedinformation.

Even if a UE receives the same feedback (e.g., ACK or NACK), the UE canperform different operations according to the configuration of theaforementioned A/N resources, A/N signal transmission methods, and UEoperations. Hereinafter, the relevant operations will be described indetail.

<A> A/N/Collision/DTX Transmission per Repetition

When a UE receives NACK/COLLISON from a BS, the UE may stop the runningrepeated transmission and initiate new transmission, starting frominitial transmission. This operation may cause unnecessaryretransmission, but it may produce a benefit in terms of latency. Whenthe UE receives DTX from the BS, the UE may change transmissionparameters related to power, beam, etc.

Even when the UE receives NACK from the BS, the UE may continue repeatedtransmission in a grant-free resource pool. Thereafter, when therepeated transmission is completed, the UE may perform retransmission.When the UE receives COLLISION from the BS, the UE may set differentresources in the grant-free resource pool. Alternatively, if theresources are changed due to the repeated transmission, the UE mayselect different resources in order to continue the repeatedtransmission. When the UE receives DTX from the BS, the UE may changetransmission parameters related to power, beam, etc.

When the UE receives NACK and/or COLLISION and/or DTX from the BS, theUE may increase the number of repetitions by T1 and then continue therepeated transmission.

When the number of times that the UE repeats transmission is equal tomore than a threshold value T2, if the UE receives NACK from the BS, theUE may transmit a different redundancy version of data from the nextrepeated transmission.

When the UE receives NACK/COLLISION for the last repeated transmission,the UE may stop the running repeated transmission and initiate newtransmission, starting from initial transmission.

When the UE receives NACK/COLLISION for the last repeated transmissionor when the UE fails to receive ACK until time N+K (it is assumed thatthe last repeated transmission time is N), the UE may increase thenumber of repetitions by T1 and continue the repeated transmission. Inthis case, K may be a scheduling time unit, which is equal to or morethan 0.

<B> A/N Transmission Only for End of Repetition

When a UE receives NACK/COLLISION from a BS, the UE may stop the runningrepeated transmission and initiate new transmission, starting frominitial transmission.

When the UE receives NACK/COLLISION from the BS or when the UE fails toreceive ACK until time N+K (it is assumed that the last repeatedtransmission time is N), the UE may increase the number of repetitionsby T1 and then continue the repeated transmission. In this case, K maybe a scheduling time unit, which is equal to or more than 0.

<C> ACK Transmission per Repetition, NACK Transmission Only for the Endof Repetition

When a UE receives ACK from a BS, the UE may stop the repeatedtransmission. When the UE receives NACK from the BS, the UE may performone of the operations <B> mentioned in the foregoing description.

<D> ACK Transmission for the First Success, NACK Transmission

When a UE receives ACK from a BS, the UE may stop the repeatedtransmission. When the UE receives NACK from the BS, the UE may performone of the operations mentioned in <B>.

In the above-described descriptions, if a UE performs new transmission,data transmitted during the new transmission may be completely identicalto the previous data, correspond to a different redundancy version ofthe TB used for the previous transmission, or be data of a new TB thatis unrelated to the previous transmission.

In addition, in the above-described descriptions, if the number ofrepetitions performed by a UE is changed, the UE may use a differentredundancy version for the added repetitions (that is, the UE may use adifferent redundancy version of data for the added repetitions).

Depending on A/N channels carrying feedback, a UE may perform theaforementioned operations in the same way or differently. For example,the UE may perform the operations differently with respect to feedbackreceived through type 1 resources and feedback received through type 2resources by distinguishing therebetween or perform the operations inthe same way.

In operation <A> mentioned in the foregoing description, the number ofadded repetitions T1, the threshold T2, and the time K can be determinedby signaling between the UE and BS, determined by hardwarecharacteristics of the UE, or restricted by latency requirements oftransmitted data. In this case, the signaling between the UE and BS maymean resource-specific/UE-specific/group-specific higher layer signalingor DCI/group DCI.

3.2. Asynchronous Timing Based A/N Channel Transmission

When type 2 resources are used for an A/N channel, asynchronous A/Ntransmission may be required for flexible use of radio resources.Specifically, the feedback transmitted at time N may indicate feedbackon transmission performed in a certain range from time N−1 to time N−Kor part of the transmission. In this case, the A/N signal transmissioncan be performed as follows.

(1) When a BS transmits an A/N signal to a UE, the A/N signal mayinclude timing information. Specifically, feedback may include the A/Nsignal and resource information R containing time information K, andupon receiving the feedback, the UE may consider the correspondingfeedback as the feedback on the UL transmission, which is performed onresource R at time N−K, based on the information.

(1-1) The time information K may be autonomously determined according tothe characteristics of data transmitted by the UE. For example, thetime-domain location of resources for feedback reception may bedifferently configured according to the service type of the datatransmitted by the UE.

(1-2) When the time/frequency resources used for grant-free transmissionare determined according to the parameters used by the UE for thegrant-free transmission, the BS may not transmit time information K orresource information R for A/N timing to the UE. Instead, the UE maydetermine time information K or resource information R based on thetransmission parameters included in the A/N signal.

Specifically, an HARQ process ID used by the UE for the grant-freetransmission may be identified by slot numbers, subframe numbers, or RBindices of the grant-free resources. Thus, the BS can determine the HARQprocess ID of the grant-free transmission performed by the UE withoutdistinguishing between initial transmission and repeated (or repetition)transmission.

For example, if UE A transmits a TB corresponding to HARQ process ID H1in slots [a, b, c, d], the BS can assume all grant-free transmissiontransmitted in the corresponding slots from UE A as HARQ process ID H1.In addition, based on an HARQ process ID field included in an A/Nsignal, the UE can recognize that the corresponding A/N signal is forthe grant-free transmission transmitted in the slots [a, b, c, d]. Inparticular, when A/N is transmitted through UL grant and an HARQ processcapable of distinguishing between grant-free transmission andgrant-based transmission is used, the UL grant may include an indicationfor distinguishing between the grant-free transmission and thegrant-based transmission or two fields for indicating HARQ process IDsthereof, respectively.

(1-3) When the time/frequency resources used for grant-free transmissionare determined according to the parameters used by the UE for thegrant-free transmission, the BS may assume that the same TB istransmitted during the period from N to N+L. In this case, the UE mayconsider the feedback transmitted during the period from N+k to N+L+k,which is apart from the period from N to N+L by timing offset k, asfeedback on the last transmission for the corresponding TB. For example,if the UE performs the grant-free initial transmission on periodicgrant-free resources and the repeated transmission on differentgrant-free resources, the BS may assume that the same TB is transmittedduring an interval between initial transmission resources.Alternatively, the grant-free resources for the initial transmissionhave high reliability, the BS may assume that the same TB is transmittedduring the time period from reception of the initial transmission untilreception of new initial transmission or before the reception of the newinitial transmission. In this case, the UE may consider the feedbacktransmitted during the time period where the same TB transmission isassumed or during the time period which is apart from the correspondingtime period by a specific offset.

(2) When a BS transmits an A/N signal to a UE, the A/N signal mayinclude an A/N bitmap with a predetermined bit length, which indicateA/N per transmission time. Specifically, upon receiving feedbackcontaining resource information R and an A/N signal composed of b1, b2,b3, . . . , bn, the UE may consider bk (where k=1, 2, . . . , n) asfeedback on UL transmission performed at different times. Here,correlation between bit information and time may be configured bysignaling between the UE and BS.

In the above-described feedback transmission methods, a UE may operatesimilar to A/N transmission with synchronous timing.

However, in the case of an asynchronous method, since the transmissiontime of feedback on UE's transmission is not fixed, a UE may need todefer its operation to wait for feedback on specific signal transmissionregardless of which type of A/N resources the UE uses. Thus, there mayoccur additional time delay.

Accordingly, to reduce this time delay, the UE may operate as follows.

<A> When the UE completes transmission of TB1 but does not receivefeedback on the last repeated transmission, the UE can restart the TB1transmission without receiving the corresponding feedback.

<B> When the UE completes the TB1 transmission but does not receive thefeedback on the last repeated transmission, the UE can starttransmission of the next transmission block, i.e., TB2 without receivingthe corresponding feedback.

3.3. Information of Type 2 Resource (Resource Type 2)

When a BS transmits an A/N signal for specific signal transmission byusing A/N transmission resources corresponding to type 2 resources, theBS should be able to basically transmit the following elements on thecorresponding A/N transmission resources:

(1) BS's feedback on the signal transmission; and

(2) Resource locations where the signal transmission is attempted orcorresponding index information.

In this case, the resource locations may mean not only the physicallocations of the resources but also, if the corresponding resources aredivided for multiple signal transmission based on multiple accessschemes such spreading codes, scrambling codes, interleaving patterns,power allocation, etc., the index of a corresponding multiple accessscheme.

In this case, the BS may transmit A/N signals to UEs that use a resourcepool by using one of the following methods based on the number ofcorresponding UEs, the amount of radio resources, traffic arrival rates,collision frequencies, etc.

1) The BS can transmit feedback on each resource in the form of abitmap. For example, feedback F1 on resource R1 and feedback F2 onresource R2 may be transmitted in the form of bitmap [F1 F2]. When theUEs use radio resources frequently, the bitmap-based transmission methodmay reduce the signaling overhead. Alternatively, the bitmap-basedtransmission method may be used when information such as DTX/COLLISIONneeds to be sent.

2) The BS may transmit the indices of resources required for feedbacktransmission among all resources and corresponding feedback values. Forexample, feedback F1 on resource R1 and feedback F2 on resource R2 maybe transmitted in the form of [R1 F1]. When the UEs use radio resourcesoccasionally, this feedback transmission method may reduce the signalingoverhead.

3) The BS may transmit feedback by combining methods 1) and 2), whichare mentioned in the foregoing description. For example, assuming thatphysical resource P1 is divided into r1, r2, r2, and r4 according to themultiple access schemes and corresponding feedback F1, F2, F3, and F4 istransmitted, corresponding feedback information may be transmitted inthe form of [P1 F1 F2 F3 F4].

3.4. HARQ-ACK for DL Repeated Transmission (DL Repetition)

The NR system to which the present invention is applicable can supportUltra Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC). Accordingly, DLtransmission may require low time latency and high reliability.

In this case, similar to UL transmission, it can be considered that a BScontinuously transmits signals by using multiple scheduling time unitsto a UE. If each transmission is self-decodable or if decoding isperformed by combining individual transmissions, the UE may transmitfeedback on each DL repetition, feedback on the last repetition, orfeedback on the successfully decoded transmission. In this case, byreversing the transmission direction of the aforementioned feedbacktransmission methods, the UE can perform feedback transmission.

In the conventional wireless communication system, a downlink resourceassignment message, which is transmitted from a BS, indicates the radioresource of a scheduling unit used for transmitting the correspondingmessage. However, in the NR system to which the present invention isapplicable, a DL resource assignment message may indicate the radioresources of multiple scheduling units or the radio resource away from ascheduling unit used for transmitting the corresponding message by arandom time period.

For DL repeated transmission, a BS can transmit DL resource assignment(DL assignment) per repeated transmission or indicate multiple radioresources for repeated transmission through a single DL assignmentmessage. Alternatively, the radio resources for the repeatedtransmission can be implicitly determined based on information includedin DL assignment.

A UE can dynamically receive information on some or all of thetime/frequency/code resources, which will be used to transmit HARQ-ACKfor DL data, through DL scheduling. Such information on UL radioresources can be represented as a relative time location with respect toa certain reference time location and frequency resource information orindices thereof.

The transmission time can be determined from the above-mentionedinformation according to the following options. The options below can beapplied to both repeated transmission and one-time transmission.Alternatively, the options can be applied when one-time datatransmission rather than repeated transmission is scheduled in multiplemini-slots or multiple slots.

(1) Option 1

The timing of the feedback resource included in the DL assignment may bedetermined with reference to the transmission time or reception time ofthe DL assignment. If the timing is determined on the basis of OFDMsymbols, the timing of the feedback resource may be determined withreference to the last symbol of the DL assignment or the last symbol inthe control region where the DL assignment is received. Alternatively,the timing of the feedback resource may be determined with reference tothe last symbol of the semi-statically designated control region. If thetiming is determined on the basis of slots or mini-slots, the timing ofthe feedback resource may be determined with reference to the slot ormini-slot in which the DL assignment is received.

(2) Option 2

The timing of the feedback resource included in the DL assignment may bedetermined with reference to the start or end of the downlink resource(e.g., PDSCH) indicated by the DL assignment. If the timing isdetermined on the basis of OFDM symbols, the timing of the feedbackresource may be determined with reference to the start and last symbolof data transmission. If the timing is determined on the basis of slotsor mini-slots, the timing of the feedback resource may be determinedwith reference to the slot or mini-slot in which the DL assignment isreceived.

(3) Option 3

When the DL assignment includes multiple radio resources for repeatedtransmission, the timing of corresponding feedback resource informationmay be determined with reference to the start or end of the lastresource in terms of time among the multiple resources. That is, thetiming of the feedback may be determined with reference to the time atwhich the repeated transmission ends.

(4) Option 4

When the DL assignment includes multiple radio resources for repeatedtransmission, the timing of corresponding feedback resource may bedetermined with reference to the start or end of the Nth resource amongthe multiple radio resources. In this case, the value of N may besemi-statically determined by the BS or included in the DL assignment.

The UE can perform feedback transmission for DL repeated transmission byusing one of the above-described options.

If the UE requires multiple feedback resources to transmit feedback onsome or all of the repeated transmission, the UE may repeatedly use thefeedback resource information, which is obtained by using one of theoptions, at a certain time interval, and more specifically, use thefeedback resource information K′ times.

According to the aforementioned method, multiple HARQ-ACK transmissionmay be continuous or discontinuous in time (for example, the HARQ-ACKtime interval may vary). In addition, the repeated transmissionassociated with the repeated HARQ-ACK transmission may be discontinuous.For example, if K′ is less than the number of repetition K, a UE may nottransmit any A/N signal for random repeated transmission.

In this case, K′ may be semi-statically determined by the BS in acell-specific/UE-specific manner. Alternatively, it may be included inDL assignment and transmitted UE-specifically. Further, a time intervalbetween A/N transmissions for the same repetition bundling may beindicated by the BS (for example, through higher layer signaling or DCIindication).

The above-described configuration can be applied to not only an A/Nfeedback configuration for DL or analysis method therefor but also anA/N feedback configuration for grant-based UL transmission or analysismethod therefor. In this case, DL assignment may be replaced with ULgrant.

3.5. HARQ Process ID Determination in UL Transmission without Grant

When a UE receives feedback through type 1 resources such as UE-specificDCI from a BS, the link between HARQ-ACK and UL transmission can bedetermined based on the HARQ process number (or HARQ process ID) for thefeedback as described above.

In this case, the UE should autonomously determine the HARQ processnumber (or HARQ process ID) for its UL transmission. Since thedetermined HARQ process number (or HARQ process ID) should be informedthe BS before the BS decodes the corresponding transmission, the UEshould be able to obtain information on the HARQ process number frominformation shared between the BS and UE.

In addition, when combining (e.g., HARQ combining based on incrementalredundancies) between the repeated transmission (repetitions) performedby the UE is considered, the UE should be able to obtain the order ofthe repeated transmission together with the HARQ process number.

For example, as a method for indicating a TB index, an HARQ processnumber (or HARQ process ID), order of repetitions, and the like, thefollowing options can be used.

(1) Opt. 1: Time resource index used in UL transmission without grant

(2) Opt. 2: Frequency resource index used in UL transmission withoutgrant

(3) Opt. 3: DM-RS sequence or parameter used in UL transmission withoutgrant

(4) Opt. 4: UCI on self-decodable channel

When options 1 to 3 are used, the maximum number of UEs that can sharegrant-free resources may be reduced. For example, it is assumed that thetotal number of DM-RS sequences is 8 and individual UEs aredistinguished from each other by using the DM-RS sequences. In thiscase, if two HARQ process numbers [0, 1] need to be indicated by aDM-RS, up to four UEs can be distinguished from each other by using theDM-RS sequences.

This problem can be solved by doubling the amount of time or frequencyresources. In other words, the decrease in the amount of accommodatedUEs when options 1 to 3 are used can be solved by using resources inanother domain.

However, in the case of a DM-RS, it may be difficult to increase theamount of accommodated UEs. Thus, to solve the decrease in the amount ofaccommodated UEs, more RS sequences are required, and thus an additionalRS resource region is also required.

Considering diversity gain for UE's repetition orders and UE's transmitpower, the UE and BS may use option 1 basically and use option 2 ifnecessary.

The UE's HARQ process number (or HARQ process ID) may be regardless ofthe above-described options. However, if the UE does not transmit two ormore TBs at the same time, it is preferred to use option 1.

If the UE use option 4, information can be indicated more flexiblycompared to other options, but the overhead may increase according tothe size of a TB index.

Hereinafter, methods by which a UE represent N pieces of information byusing options 1 to 3 mentioned in the foregoing description will bedescribed in detail.

1) A BS can periodically allocate N UL resources according to option 1,and thus a UE can transmit UL signals (e.g., grant-free UL signals) onthe allocated UL resources. In other words, according to this method,the N periodic UL resources are allocated for the UE using N HARQprocesses, and the BS recognizes each HARQ process from signaltransmission performed by the UE on each resource.

2) A BS can allocate N UL resources existing in different frequencyregions according to option 2, and thus, a UE can transmit UL signals(e.g., grant-free UL signals) on the allocated UL resources in thedifferent frequency regions. According to this method, the N ULresources in the different frequency regions are allocated for the UEusing N HARQ processes, and the BS recognizes each HARQ process fromsignal transmission performed by the UE on each resource.

3) A UE can transmit one of N different RS sequences together with userdata according to option 2.

According to the aforementioned methods, the side effects can becompensated for by using different resource domains. Thus, the BS canestablish configurations for UEs by considering the aforementionedeffects.

In addition, the methods can be simultaneously used to representmultiple pieces of information. For example, to indicate N HARQprocesses and M repetition orders, the UE may indicate the N HARQprocesses by using option land indicate the repetition orders by usingoption 3. In addition, the BS may promise the UE to indicate the N HARQprocesses by using option 1 and indicate the repetition order by usingoption 3.

Moreover, to indicate all information, the UE may repeatedly use thesame method.

FIGS. 11 and 12 schematically illustrate relationships between HARQprocess IDs (or HARQ process numbers) and periodically allocatedresources according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 , a UE may use option 1 to indicate N HARQprocess numbers (or HARQ process IDs) and M repetition orders. In FIGS.11 and 12 , Hx means HARQ process number=x (or HARQ process ID=x), andRx means repetition order=x.

To this end, the BS and UE may promise that the allocated resources andthe HARQ process number (or HARQ process ID) and repetition order foreach resource are configured as shown in FIG. 11 or 12 . Accordingly,the BS may allocate N periodic resources (R1, R2, and R3 correspondingto Hx, where x=1, 2, or 3) for the UE M times (M=3) as shown in FIG. 11or 12 .

The effects obtained by distinguishing between UE-IDs (e.g., C-RNTIs) orTB indices (e.g., HARQ Process Numbers (HPNs) and repetition orders) mayvary according to the resource domain used therefor.

Alternatively, as described above, use of a certain resource domain maybe prohibited (or restricted) in order to obtain the diversity.

In addition, the efficient configuration may vary according to thenumber of UEs sharing grant-free resources or the characteristics oftraffic. Thus, when UE-IDs and TB indices are distinguished by using thegrant-free resource configuration, the network may properly select aresource domain according to the current situation.

When repeated transmission is applied, a method used by a UE to indicatea TB index and a method for transmitting retransmission grant based onthe obtained TB index can be additionally considered in order for a BSto obtain the index of the TB transmitted from the UE. According to thepresent invention, the following methods can be applied.

<1> (separating transmission between initial and repetition) Whenindicating a TB index, a UE may distinguish between initial transmissionand repeated transmission instead of indicating all repetition orders.In this case, other TB information (e.g., HPN) except the repetitionorders (initial or not) may be determined only by the initialtransmission. If there is a predetermined pattern between the initialand repeated transmission, a BS may determine not only whether therepeated transmission is performed but also the TB information of therepeated transmission by detecting the UE's initial transmission. WhenAlt. 1 is applied, if the BS cannot determine the TB information of therepeated transmission due to missing of the initial transmission, thefollowing methods can be additionally used.

When the transmission is repeated K times including the initialtransmission, if continuous (K−1) times repeated transmission isreceived due to missing of the initial transmission or if the repeatedtransmission has a specific pattern mapped to the TB information of theinitial transmission, the BS may assume a TB index estimated from theinformation to be equal to the TB information of the repeatedtransmission. As an example of the specific pattern, if there is aninterval between resources that can be used for the initialtransmission, it can be assumed that repeated transmission in thecorresponding interval is mapped to one TB. If the correspondingrepeated transmission is received, an HARQ process ID can be estimatedbased on the closest initial transmission resources.

Even when the BS cannot accurately estimate the TB index of specifictransmission, if the BS can check that a specific transmission bundle isa transmission bundle for the same TB based on a certain pattern orrelationship (for example, if the BS can recognize that receivedrepeated transmission corresponds to the same TB because (K−1)transmission occurrences are not always transmitted between TBs), the BSmay request the UE to retransmit the corresponding TB by using a randomTB index and the reception timing of grant-free transmission. In thiscase, one of the TB index values used by the UE may be selected as therandom TB index, or it may be set to a specific TB index which means anunknown TB index. As another example, when it is assumed that theinitial and repeated transmission exists only in one slot or M slots orwhen it is assumed that the initial and repeated transmission uses thesame mini-slot resources per slot, the UE or BS may assume that theinitial and repeated transmission transmitted in the same slot or ‘M’slots has the same HARQ or that all transmission with the same mini-slotindex has the same HARQ. In this case, to change an HARQ process ID, theUE may transmit a signal by using another slot, ‘M’ other slots, oranother mini-slot index. For example, when K HARQ processes aresupported, the BS may allocate K grant-free resources in one slot andthen determine an HARQ process index according to a mini-slot index inthe slot.

When the BS fails to receive the initial transmission (when the initialtransmission is missed), the BS may assume that all other signaltransmission (e.g., repeated transmission) including the initialtransmission is not received.

<2> (No soft combining among repetition) When indicating a TB index, aUE may indicate a TB index independent for all signal transmissionwithout distinguishing whether corresponding signal transmission is forthe same TB. For example, if the UE performs repeated transmission fourtimes for a specific TB, the four times repeated transmission may havedifferent TB indices. For retransmission of the received TB, the BS mayindicate the TB index or inform the reception timing of grant-freetransmission with a random TB index. In this case, the BS separatelydecodes multiple transmission for the same TB. Thus, even if the BSsuccessfully decodes some signal transmission, the BS may requestretransmission of the remaining signal transmission. At this time,explicit feedback indicating successful transmission may be required.Alternatively, a method for including TB information in a TB (e.g., MACheader) may be considered to allow the BS to determine whether thecorresponding TB is the expected one after decoding. In addition, sincethe UE performs several HARQ processes for the same TB, the UE mayreceive multiple UL grant with different TB indices (e.g., HPNs) for thesame TB from the BS. In this case, the UE may additionally use thefollowing methods.

The UE performs the retransmission through the first appearing UL grantand may ignore the remaining UL grant for the same TB. In terms of timedelay, since the UE cannot be convinced that its TB is successfullytransmitted, the UE may preferentially handle the first received ULgrant.

To obtain a high transmission success rate, the UE may perform theretransmission for all received UL grant. When receiving feedbackindicating that one of the signals transmitted for the same TB issuccessful, the UE may ignore UL grant received thereafter.

The UE may wait to receive information indicating whether transmissionis successful until the last feedback. Next, if it is determined thatall signal transmission fails, the UE may attempt to perform theretransmission by using the last received UL grant.

<3> (indicating NDI as TB index): When indicating a TB index, a UE mayalways map continuous signal transmission to one TB. In other words, theUE may not perform transmission for different TBs alternately. By doingso, the next TB can be distinguished from the previous TB. For example,when the UE use a TB different from the previous one, the UE may usedifferent time resources, frequency resources, or RS parameters. The BSmay indicate the reception timing of one of the received ULtransmissions in order for the UE to perform retransmission. Thecorresponding UL transmission may be the first, last, or random signaltransmission of the UL transmission mapped to the same TB.

In the above-described operations, a BS may use the feedbacktransmission methods described in sections 3.1 and 3.2 to indicate thereception timing of grant-free transmission. In addition, the BS may usea relative time offset value with reference to a certain reference pointto indicate the reception timing. In this case, the reference point maybe a feedback transmission time, a frame such as SFN, a subframe, a slotindex, etc.

When the repetition order of each transmission is indicated by a TBindex, the number of repetitions K needs to be considered for theresource configuration. For example, if a UE repeats transmission fourtimes, a BS may configure four or more resources for the same TB. Inthis case, the number of repetitions K may be UE-specificallyconfigured.

Thus, when multiple UEs share a single time/frequency resource, each ofthe UEs may have a different number of repetitions K. In this case, thefollowing methods can be applied.

1> Resource allocation may be performed with reference to the highestvalue among the repetition numbers K used by the UEs sharing the singleresource. For example, if UEs A and B has repetition numbers, K1 and K2(K1>K2), respectively, resources are allocated to both UEs A and B withreference to K1. Thereafter, after performing K2 repetitions by usingthe allocated resources, UE B may empty (not use) the remainingresources. In this case, how UE B selects K2 resources from among the K1resources may be determined via higher layer signaling or L1 signaling,or it may be predetermined.

2> A limitation may be imposed on the number of repetitions performed bya UE, K. Resources may be allocated to each UE based on the smallest Kvalue. Thereafter, each UE may use the resources in a nested form.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of allocating resources based on thenumber of repetitions according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

It is assumed that each UE can use only one of the K values: 2, 4, and 8as shown in FIG. 13 . In this case, if resources are allocated for eighttimes transmission, each UE may use the resources allocated as shown inFIG. 13 according to the K value.

When a UE indicates the order of repetitions through allocated resourcesas described above with reference to method 1), a method fordistinguishing between two types of transmission: initial transmissionand other transmission may be considered. Considering time delay, the UEmay use the other options except option 11 to start initial transmissionat a random time.

If a BS recognizes that the UE starts the transmission through the TBindex of the initial transmission transmitted by the UE, the BS mayobtain the location of the next transmission and order thereof from apredetermined pattern. Thus, N resources for indicating the repetitionorder may be unrelated to the number of repetitions performed by the UE,K.

Alternatively, when the BS does not need to know the repetition ordereven though the UE performs the repeated transmission (for example, whenother information except an HPN is not required because HARQ combiningis performed by a chase combining method), the BS may require only apool for repeated repetitions. In this case, the size of the resourcepool for the repetitions may be configured regardless of the number ofrepetitions K.

FIGS. 14 to 16 schematically illustrate examples of resource allocationwhen three times repeated transmission including initial transmission isconfigured.

In FIGS. 14 to 16 , when the amount of used resources is less than K, itis beneficial to operate multiple HARQ processes. In addition,considering that grant-free transmission is switched to grant-basedtransmission through UL grant, a UE may switch to the grant-basedtransmission during an idle interval in order to avoid unnecessaryrepetitions.

As shown in FIG. 14 , when a specific UE uses more than K resources, thespecific UE may continuously perform K repetitions in many intervals.However, in this case, the time required to reach a next resource in thesame HPN may relatively increase. As another example, the specific UEmay drop repeated transmission on the next resource mapped to the sameHPN by considering a latency boundary as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 .

As described above, an HARQ process can be determined based on only the(resource) location of the initial transmission. In this case, to allowa UE to perform K repetitions on consecutive transmission occasions andat the same time, transmit two or more TB sequentially, a method formapping an additional HARQ process ID is required with consideration ofthe number of repetitions K.

FIGS. 17 and 18 schematically illustrate that a UE continuouslytransmits two TBs (TB1 and TB2). When the UE continuously transmits thetwo TBs (TB1 and TB2) as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 , if the number ofrepetitions (K) and the number of HPNs (MAX_HPN) are not considered, thefollowing problems may occur.

Specifically, FIG. 17 shows that in the case of K=4 and MAX_HPN=4, HPNsare sequentially mapped. In this case, if a UE performs more than fourrepetitions by mapping HPN1 to TB1, the next transmission occasioncorresponds to HPN1 again, and thus the UE should defer the transmissionuntil a transmission occasion with another HPN.

FIG. 18 shows a case in which a HPN is mapped to N consecutivetransmission occasions. In FIG. 18 , if more than K transmissionoccasions are mapped to the same HPN, the UE should defer the signaltransmission until a slot mapped to another HPN as shown in FIG. 17 .

When a UE defers the signal transmission as described above, it maycause additional time delay. Thus, the following conditions may beconsidered to prevent the UE from deferring the signal transmission toavoid overlapping between HPNs.

N should be equal to or less than K. If MAX_HPN is 2, N is equal to K.

MAX_HPN*N should be more than K.

When K is more than MAX_HPN*N, MAX_HPN*N cannot be a factor of K.

When K is equal to MAX_HPN*N, a different HPN is mapped per MAX_HPN*N.For example, in the case of N=1 and MAX_HPN=K=4, such an HPN mappingmethod as [0 1 2 3], [1 2 3 0], [2 3 0 1] . . . can be considered.

As the simplest method satisfying all of the above conditions, a mappingmethod of using the relationship of N=K regardless of MAX_HPN can beconsidered.

Alternatively, if some of the conditions are satisfied, the number ofcases where a UE defers TB transmission to avoid overlapping betweenHPNs may be reduced. Thus, mapping that satisfies some of the conditionscan be allowed for the flexibility of HPN mapping and other operations.For example, when part of signal transmission is missed, N may be higherthan K to avoid a situation that HPNs cannot be distinguished from eachother.

When a UE performs repeated transmission, it may be considered that a BSperform soft combing of the repeated transmission. In particular, whenthe BS performs soft combining based on an incremental redundancyscheme, the UE may perform transmission by using a different redundancyversion (RV) in each repetition. However, when the UE transmits a signalwithout grant, the BS cannot know which RVs the UE uses. Therefore, theBS and UE need to promise which RVs will used for grant-freetransmission. In this case, the following methods can be applied.

(A) The transmitted RVs may automatically change according to thetransmission order of the UE. If the BS can accurately grasp thetransmission order of the UE at reception time (for example, when the UEalways starts the transmission at a fixed (time) location and continuesthe repeated transmission according to a predetermined rule, when the UE(separately) indicate the transmission order in repeating thetransmission K times, or when the UE indicates the order of the initialtransmission by using separate resources), the BS may perform decodingby estimating the RVs based on the transmission order of the UE.

(B) The RVs that will be used by the UE for signal transmission may bedetermined according to grant-free UL resources allocated to the UE(that is, a mapping relationship between the RVs and grant-free ULresources can be established). This mapping relationship may bedetermined according to time and/or frequency indices used by the UE forsignal transmission or vary in each transmission occasion of theallocated resources according to a predetermined pattern. In this case,the pattern may be determined by the BS through L1 signaling or RRCsignaling, or it may be predetermined.

When method (B) is used, the performance may vary according to the RVused by the UE.

For example, the grant-free resource allocated to the UE may becomeunavailable for several reasons such as reserved resources of thesystem, a Random Access CHannel (RACH), Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)configuration, dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD), etc. Thus, some RVpatterns used by the UE may be dropped.

In addition, when another UE performs signal transmission at the sametime, the BS may not correctly receive the corresponding signaltransmission.

In general, whether system bits are transmitted or not dominantlyaffects the performance of TB reception. Thus, if transmission of an RVcontaining multiple systematic bits is dropped while a UE performsrepeated transmission, it may cause significant performance degradation.Accordingly, RV0 that includes most of the systematic bits needs to beconfigured to be repeatedly transmitted at least one time (the number ofrepetitions may increase if necessary). To this end, the followingmatters can be considered.

A) Multiple RV0s are included in an RV pattern.

B) When a UE performs K repetitions for the same TB and an RV pattern ismapped to transmission occasions, the RV pattern may be configured suchthat at least one RV0, which includes most of the systematic bits, isincluded in K transmission occasions. Alternatively, the length of theRV pattern may be configured to be shorter than K.

C) When a UE performs K repetitions for the same TB and an RV pattern ismapped to resource indices, different mapping (pattern) may be appliedper UE or grant-free configuration. In this case, the applied mapping(pattern) may be mapping (pattern) where the BS is highly likely toreceive RV0 by considering the location of resources, periodicity, etc.,which are used by the UE.

The above-described RV pattern may differ per UE, grant-freeconfiguration, or cell, or it may be changed during the operation. Whena new RV pattern is allocated or when the existing RV pattern ischanged, the UE may operate as follows to determine when the UE shoulduse the new RV pattern.

<A> When an RV pattern is determined through L1 signaling, the UE mayuse the corresponding RV pattern at the time when the L1 signaling isreceived. In this case, the BS may receive feedback from the UE to checkwhether the L1 signaling is successfully received.

<B> The UE may determine when to apply a new RV pattern based on theindex of a time resource shared with the system. For example, the UE mayuse the RV pattern from the System Frame Number (SFN) appearing afterthe SFN where the RV pattern is received. Alternatively, the UE maydetermine the application time of the RV pattern based on offsetinformation provided with reference to SFN0 or the current SFN.

<C> An RV pattern can be determined by a grant-free resourceconfiguration or a message equal or similar to the configuration. Inthis case, the UE may use a new RV pattern from the application time ofgrant-free resources.

Additionally, when the BS signals an RV pattern, it is not necessary toprovide feedback on the RV pattern. In this case, the BS may performblind decoding of two RV patterns (e.g., previous and new RV patterns).

If only repeated transmission except initial transmission is deliveredto a BS although a UE performs signal transmission K times, untilreception of all (K−1) times repeated transmission, the BS cannotspecify HARQ process numbers of the corresponding repeated transmission.That is, when the initial transmission is missed, the BS may ignore thefollowing repeated transmission.

If the probability of missing the initial transmission is sufficientlylow, the above effect can be ignored. Additionally, the followingmethods can be considered to reduce the probability of missing theinitial transmission.

A> Non-Symmetric RS Sequence

When the initial transmission is distinguished from the repeatedtransmission by using different RS sequences, the RS sequence used forthe initial transmission may be allocated more robustly than that forthe repeated transmission. If the initial transmission is distinguishedfrom the repeated transmission by using different cyclic shifted RSs,the CS gap of the RS used for the initial transmission may be largerthan that for the repeated transmission.

FIGS. 19 and 20 schematically illustrate CS gaps applicable to initialand repeated transmission according to the present invention.

FIG. 19 shows a configuration where all RS sequences used for theinitial and repeated transmission have the same CS gap. FIG. 20 shows aconfiguration where the RS sequences used for the initial transmissionhas a CS gap larger than that of RS sequences used for the repeatedtransmission.

That is, when the RS sequences used for the initial and repeatedtransmission have different CS gaps as shown in FIG. 20 , theprobability of missing the initial transmission can be minimized.

B> Non-Symmetric Power Control

A UE may use different TX power for the initial and repeatedtransmission. For example, the UE may perform the initial transmissionby additionally allocating as much TX power as a predetermined offsetfor the initial transmission.

3.6. Handling of Multiple HARQ Processes by UE-Specific HARQ-ACKFeedback

When a UE receives HARQ-ACK feedback on grant-free UL transmission, theUE can switch its UL transmission mode to grant-based UL transmissionmode based on the feedback. In the case of grant-free UL transmission,since a UE can autonomously determine an HARQ process, a BS needs toreserve the corresponding HARQ process in advance. In this case, if thecorresponding HARQ process is switched to a grant-based process, theremay occur a mismatch between the UE and BS. To overcome this mismatch,the present invention describes in detail how a UE and a BS operateswhen the UE switches from grant-free UL transmission to grant-based ULtransmission.

(1) Use of the Same HPN

The BS may reserve a specific HARQ process number in order to use itonly for grant-free transmission. In this case, the corresponding HPNmay be temporarily used for grant-based transmission only forretransmission associated with grant-free transmission. In this case,the corresponding HPN cannot be used for grant-free transmission untiltransmission of a corresponding TB is completed.

Priority may be given to a grant-free HARQ process. Specifically, whenHPN X operates in a grant-free manner, if UL grant indicates the sameHPN, the UE may ignore the corresponding UL grant.

(2) Switching to Another HPN when Transition from Grant-Free Mode toGrant-Based Mode Occurs

In this case, the previous HPN, that is, the HPN before switching can beused for grant-free transmission for the next TB.

As described above in sections 3.1 and 3.2, the correlation between ULtransmission and UE-specific HARQ-ACK feedback related to the ULtransmission may be specified by the HPN of the corresponding ULtransmission and HPN information included in the corresponding feedback,the resources used for the corresponding UL transmission and resourceinformation included in the corresponding feedback, or the resourcesused for transmitting the feedback. Considering the above correlation, aUE can switch from grant-free transmission mode to grant-basedtransmission mode according to the following messages.

1) When method (1) mentioned in the foregoing description is applied,the UE can switch from the grant-free transmission mode to thegrant-based transmission mode based on HARQ-ACK feedback containing theHPN of grant-free transmission and grant-based resources for the UE.

2) When method (2) mentioned in the foregoing description is applied,the UE can switch from the grant-free transmission mode to thegrant-based transmission mode based on HARQ-ACK feedback containinggrant-free resources and HPN information of grant-based transmission tobe used. In this case, as a method for excluding an HPN, a connectionrelationship between feedback and grant-free UL transmission may beestablished.

2-1) CRC scrambling of HARQ-ACK feedback varies according to thegrant-free transmission or the HPN related to the transmission.

2-2) The resources for transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback vary according tothe grant-free transmission or the HPN related to the transmission.

2-3) HARQ-ACK feedback may include resource allocation used forgrant-free transmission or indices thereof.

2-4) HARQ-ACK feedback may include not only the HPN of grant-basedtransmission but also the HPN of grant-free transmission.

Even if the HARQ process ID of grant-free UL transmission is configuredindependently from that of grant-based UL transmission, the total numberof HARQ processes that operate at the same time may be limited by a UE'ssoft buffer. In this case, assuming that the maximum number of HARQprocesses is N, the number of HARQ processes for grant-basedtransmission may be limited to N−1 to allow a UE to perform thegrant-free transmission without any restriction. Alternatively, the UEmay arbitrarily stop one of the HARQ processes of the grant-based ULtransmission and perform the grant-free transmission.

3.7. Information for Handling A/N Missing Case

Regardless of transmission feedback types, feedback may not be received.To handle the missed feedback, the following matters can be considered.

Since a BS does not require a confirmation message for feedback, the BScannot know whether the corresponding feedback is successfullytransmitted.

For example, when the corresponding feedback is NACK (in particular,when transmission failure is indicated through DCI including RAinformation), the BS may expect that a UE will perform retransmission.Thus, the BS may attempt to receive the expected retransmission oncorresponding RA.

However, in this case, if the UE does not receive the corresponding DCI,the BS will fail to receive the retransmission from the UE. Thus, the BSmay request the UE to perform the retransmission again (i.e., secondretransmission).

In this case, if the UE receives feedback on the second retransmission,which the UE does not understand (in particular, when the correspondingfeedback is associated with grant-free resources similar to the feedbackbased on type 2 resources, or when transmission is associated with ULgrant due to reception timing of DCI rather than the HARQ process numberof a TB even though the corresponding feedback is transmitted on type 1resources), the UE cannot grasp the TB that should be retransmitted.

Accordingly, to solve the problem, the following methods can beconsidered.

(1) Retransmission is always performed at fixed timing, t_HARQ(synchronous HARQ).

Specifically, although a UE receives UL grant at time T, signaltransmission performed by the UE may not exist at time T−t_HARQ. In thiscase, the UE may assume that the UL grant corresponds to the UL grant(feedback) on signal transmission performed at time T−n*t_HARQ, where nis a natural number greater than 1.

Additionally, a BS may explicitly inform the UE of nth retransmissionthrough DCI. Accordingly, when the UE receives UL grant including theDCI, the UE may assume that the corresponding UL grant is the feedbackon the signal transmission performed at the time T−n*t_HARQ.

(2) A UE may use UL grant reception timing or a time window where the ULgrant is received in order to determine UL transmission corresponding tothe UL grant. In this case, a BS may provide the UE with offsetinformation on the corresponding time or time window by including theoffset information in the UL grant.

In this case, the signal transmission indicated by the UL grant for thenth retransmission may always be the initial transmission. In this case,as a method for indicating the number of times of retransmission, the BSmay add an explicit bit field to the UL grant or change the CRCscrambling used for transmitting the UL grant. By doing so, the UE canestimate the number of times of retransmission.

(3) UL grant may include resource information on previous signaltransmission. Accordingly, a correlation relationship between UL grantand a TB may be established. In this case, the amount of informationthat can be indicated by the corresponding resource information maybecome sufficiently large, and it may always indicate the initialtransmission regardless of the number of times of retransmission.

(4) UL grant may include resource information on previous signaltransmission. Accordingly, a correlation relationship between UL grantand a TB may be established. In this case, a BS may indicate differencebetween the initial transmission and the previous transmission byincluding separate offset information in the resource information on theprevious signal transmission. Thus, the UL grant may simultaneouslyrepresent the (time) location of the initial transmission and the (time)location of the previous transmission.

FIG. 21 schematically illustrate operation between a UE and a BSaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 12 , the BS 100 configures grant-free UL transmission(or grant-free transmission) for the UE 1 [S2110].

In this case, the configuration may be performed through separate RRCsignaling.

Here, the grant-free UL transmission may mean that the UE transmits a ULsignal on resources configured by the BS without separate dynamicsignaling (e.g., UL grant).

Next, the UE 1 repeatedly transmits a UL signal one or more times to theBS 100 [S2120]. In this case, the repeated transmission of the UL signalmay be performed by using resources configured by the BS within apredetermined period.

In this case, the UL signal repeatedly transmitted one or more timeswithin the predetermined time may be configured to correspond to thesame Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID).

In addition, if the number of repetitions is set to K, (1) the UE mayrepeat the transmission K times within the predetermined period, or (2)if the predetermined period expires, the UE may terminate repeating thetransmission.

Moreover, the UE may obtain acknowledgement information for the ULsignal from the BS.

In this case, the UE may obtain the acknowledgement information for theUL signal as follows: 1) if acknowledgement information corresponding tothe HARQ process ID is received from the BS, the UE obtainsNon-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the UL signal; and 2) if theacknowledgement information corresponding to the HARQ process ID is notreceived from the BS, the UE obtains ACKnowledgement (ACK) for the ULsignal.

At this time, if the UE receives the NACK for the UL signal, the UE mayperform retransmission of the UL signal.

Further, the acknowledgement information may be indicated by combiningeither or both of: <1> information indicating a specific value asresource allocation information for the UE; and <2> feedback informationusing an HARQ process which is not currently used.

Furthermore, the HARQ process ID is determined based on a resource onwhich initial transmission of the repeated transmission is performed(for example, based on the location of the resource where the initialtransmission is or can be performed).

Additionally, a redundancy version corresponding to the UL signalrepeatedly transmitted from the UE may vary depending on a pattern thatis determined based on the resources allocated to the UE.

In response to the operation performed by the UE, the BS may receive theUL signal, which the UE repeatedly transmits one or more times, in stepS2120

In this case, if the number of repetitions is set to K (where K is anatural number equal to or greater than 1) for the UE, the BS mayreceive, from the UE, the UL signal one or more times but K or lesstimes depending on how the UE repeats the transmission within thepredetermined time.

In addition, the BS may either transmit acknowledgement informationcorresponding to the HARQ process ID to the UE or discard thetransmission according to whether the received UL signal is successfullydecoded.

Specifically, when the BS successfully decodes the received UL signal,the BS does not transmit any acknowledgement information to the UE (thatis, discards the transmission). On the contrary, when the BS fails todecode the received UL signal, the BS may transmit separateacknowledgement information to the UE. Thus, the acknowledgementinformation may be Non-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the UL signal.

Alternatively, the BS may transmit acknowledgement informationcorresponding to the HARQ process ID to the UE according to whether thereceived UL signal is successfully decoded. In this case, theacknowledgement information may be indicated by combining either or bothof: <1> information indicating a specific value as resource allocationinformation for the UE; and <2> feedback information using an HARQprocess which is not currently used.

Since each embodiment of the above-described proposed method can beconsidered as one method for implementing the present invention, it isapparent that each embodiment can be regarded as a proposed method. Inaddition, the present invention can be implemented not only using theproposed methods independently but also by combining (or merging) someof the proposed methods. In addition, it is possible to define a rulethat information on whether the proposed methods are applied (orinformation on rules related to the proposed methods) should betransmitted from the eNB to the UE through a predefined signal (e.g.,physical layer signal, higher layer signal, etc.).

4. Device Configuration

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating configurations of a UE and a BScapable of being implemented by the embodiments proposed in the presentinvention. The UE and BS shown in FIG. 22 operate to implement theembodiments of the method for operating the UE and the BS.

The UE 1 may act as a transmission end on UL and as a reception end onDL. The BS (eNB or gNB) 100 may act as a reception end on UL and as atransmission end on DL.

That is, each of the UE and BS may include a Transmitter (Tx) 10 or 110and a Receiver (Rx) 20 or 120, for controlling transmission andreception of information, data, and/or messages, and an antenna 30 or130 for transmitting and receiving information, data, and/or messages.

Each of the UE and BS may further include a processor 40 or 140 forimplementing the afore-described embodiments of the present disclosureand a memory 50 or 150 for temporarily or permanently storing operationsof the processor 40 or 140.

With the above-described configuration, the UE 1 repeatedly transmits anuplink signal one or more times on resources configured by the BS withina predetermined time through the processor 40 controlling thetransmitter 10 when grant-free uplink transmission is configured by theBS. In this case, the uplink signal repeatedly transmitted one or moretimes within the predetermined time corresponds to the same HybridAutomatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID).

With the above-described configuration, the BS 100 receive, from the UE,an uplink signal one or more times on resources configured by the BSwithin a predetermined period through the processor 140 controlling thereceiver 120 when grant-free uplink transmission is configured for theUE. In this case, the uplink signal repeatedly transmitted one or moretimes within the predetermined time corresponds to the same HybridAutomatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID).

The Tx and Rx of the UE and the BS may perform a packetmodulation/demodulation function for data transmission, a high-speedpacket channel coding function, OFDM packet scheduling, TDD packetscheduling, and/or channelization. Each of the UE and the base stationof FIG. 15 may further include a low-power Radio Frequency(RF)/Intermediate Frequency (IF) module.

Meanwhile, the UE may be any of a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), acellular phone, a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a GlobalSystem for Mobile (GSM) phone, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access(WCDMA) phone, a Mobile Broadband System (MBS) phone, a hand-held PC, alaptop PC, a smart phone, a Multi Mode-Multi Band (MM-MB) terminal, etc.

The smart phone is a terminal taking the advantages of both a mobilephone and a PDA. It incorporates the functions of a PDA, that is,scheduling and data communications such as fax transmission andreception and Internet connection into a mobile phone. The MB-MMterminal refers to a terminal which has a multi-modem chip built thereinand which can operate in any of a mobile Internet system and othermobile communication systems (e.g. CDMA 2000, WCDMA, etc.).

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be achieved by various means,for example, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

In a hardware configuration, the methods according to exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure may be achieved by one or moreApplication Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital SignalProcessors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs),Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors,etc.

In a firmware or software configuration, the methods according to theembodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form ofa module, a procedure, a function, etc. performing the above-describedfunctions or operations. A software code may be stored in the memory 50or 150 and executed by the processor 40 or 140. The memory is located atthe interior or exterior of the processor and may transmit and receivedata to and from the processor via various known means.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure maybe carried out in other specific ways than those set forth hereinwithout departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of thepresent disclosure. The above embodiments are therefore to be construedin all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of thedisclosure should be determined by the appended claims and their legalequivalents, not by the above description, and all changes coming withinthe meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended tobe embraced therein. It is obvious to those skilled in the art thatclaims that are not explicitly cited in each other in the appendedclaims may be presented in combination as an embodiment of the presentdisclosure or included as a new claim by a subsequent amendment afterthe application is filed.

The present disclosure is applicable to various wireless access systemsincluding a 3GPP system, and/or a 3GPP2 system. Besides these wirelessaccess systems, the embodiments of the present disclosure are applicableto all technical fields in which the wireless access systems find theirapplications. Moreover, the proposed method can also be applied tommWave communication using an ultra-high frequency band.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed by a User Equipment (UE) to communicate with a Base Station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, from the BS, information regarding a number of repetitions K to perform repeated uplink transmissions; performing the repeated uplink transmissions on consecutive time-domain resources within a time period associated with a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID), wherein the repeated uplink transmissions are configured by the BS without dynamic scheduling; and terminating the repeated uplink transmissions at the end of the time period, wherein a number of the repeated uplink transmissions does not reach the number of repetitions K at the end of the time period, wherein the time period comprises a plurality of predetermined time-domain resources, and wherein each of the repeated uplink transmissions is performed on a respective one of the plurality of predetermined time-domain resources.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein an initial uplink transmission among the repeated uplink transmissions occurs after an initial time-domain resource of the time period.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining acknowledgement information for the repeated uplink transmissions.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining the acknowledgement information for the repeated uplink transmissions comprises: based on receiving, from the BS, acknowledgement information corresponding to a HARQ process ID associated with the repeated uplink transmissions, obtaining Non-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the repeated uplink transmissions; and based on not receiving, from the BS, the acknowledgement information corresponding to the HARQ process ID associated with the repeated uplink transmissions, obtaining ACKnowledgement (ACK) for the repeated uplink transmissions.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, based on receiving the NACK for the repeated uplink transmissions, performing retransmission of the repeated uplink transmissions.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the acknowledgement information is indicated by combining either or both of information indicating a specific value as resource allocation information for the UE and feedback information using an HARQ process which is not currently used.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the HARQ process ID associated with the repeated uplink transmissions is determined based on a time-domain resource that an initial uplink transmission among the repeated uplink transmissions is performed.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein a redundancy version for the repeated uplink transmissions is determined based on each transmission occasion for the repeated uplink transmissions.
 9. A method performed by a Base Station (BS) to communicate with a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: transmitting, to the UE, information regarding a number of repetitions K to perform repeated uplink transmissions; receiving, from the UE, the repeated uplink transmissions on consecutive time-domain resources within a time period associated with a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID), wherein the repeated uplink transmissions are configured by the BS without dynamic scheduling; and wherein the reception of the repeated uplink transmissions are performed until the end of the time period, wherein a number of the repeated uplink transmissions does not reach the number of repetitions K at the end of the time period, wherein the time period comprises a plurality of predetermined time-domain resources, and wherein each of the repeated uplink transmissions is received on a respective one of the plurality of predetermined time-domain resources.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein an initial uplink transmission among the repeated uplink transmissions occurs after an initial time-domain resource of the time period.
 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: based on whether the repeated uplink transmissions are successfully decoded, (i) transmitting acknowledgement information corresponding to the HARQ process ID associated with the repeated uplink transmissions with respect to the UE, or (ii) dropping a transmission of the acknowledgement information.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the acknowledgement information corresponds to Non-ACKnowledgement (NACK) for the repeated uplink transmissions.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising, based on the BS transmitting the acknowledgement information, receiving, from the UE, a signal that is retransmitted for the repeated uplink transmissions.
 14. The method of claim 9, further comprising: transmitting, to the UE, acknowledgement information corresponding to the HARQ process ID based whether the repeated uplink transmissions are successfully decoded, wherein the acknowledgement information is indicated by at least one of (i) information indicating a specific value as resource allocation information for the UE, or (ii) feedback information using an HARQ process which is not currently used.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the HARQ process ID associated with the repeated uplink transmissions is determined based on a time-domain resource that the UE performs an initial uplink transmission among the repeated uplink transmissions.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein a time-domain resource that an initial uplink transmission among the repeated uplink transmissions is performed is determined based on a specific resource index of the time period.
 17. A communication device configured for a Base Station (BS) to communicate with a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the communication device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory operably coupled with the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to control the BS to perform operations comprising: transmitting, to the UE, information regarding a number of repetitions K to perform repeated uplink transmissions; receiving, from the UE, the repeated uplink transmissions on consecutive time-domain resources within a time period associated with a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process identity (ID), wherein the repeated uplink transmissions are configured by the BS without dynamic scheduling; and wherein the reception of the repeated uplink transmissions are performed until the end of the time period, wherein a number of the repeated uplink transmissions does not reach the number of repetitions K at the end of the time period, wherein the time period comprises a plurality of predetermined time-domain resources, and wherein each of the repeated uplink transmissions is received on a respective one of the plurality of predetermined time-domain resources. 